Africa's Covid-19 Vaccine Production Line in Jeopardy

In the absence of orders or commitments, Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer Aspen is considering the repurposing of two Covid-19 production lines for the manufacture of other products, Adrian Kriesch reports for Deutsche Welle.

In 2021, the company started manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines in the city of Gqeberha. The production line received a U.S.$634 million long-term financing package from development agencies, also from Germany. South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa called it a "historic agreement." Aspen said it could manufacture more than 200 million doses per year for Johnson & Johnson. That number was never reached.

Later, Aspen went into a licensing arrangement with Johnson & Johnson and acquired rights to manufacture their own vaccine Aspenovax. To date they haven't received a single order - and are now at risk to shut down the production lines. "Everybody has supported building local capacities on the continent," Stavros Nicolaou, a Senior Executive at Aspen Pharmacare Group, said. "But that policy decision has not been practically expressed in orders."

Aspen has counted on orders by multinational procurement agencies - but never received any. About 60% of Covid-19 vaccines used in Africa went through the UN-backed COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access) facility. In the past, several industrialized countries donated their surplus doses to COVAX and poorer nations. Often with approaching expiry dates.

This development comes after South African health officials urged Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer Aspen to keep its plant in the Eastern Cape province open. South Africa's National Health Department Spokesperson Foster Mohale said: "Vaccine hesitancy is one of the factors which contribute to these low vaccination rates or demand for more vaccines which also affect the production. Because obviously we understand that they are in a business, they can't keep on producing vaccines when they know that the demand for vaccines is very low. So, we understand the situation where they are, and we sympathize with them."

Southern Africa currently faces an uptick in Copvid-19 infections with the sub-region recording 46,271 cases in the week ending on 8 May 2022, marking a 32% increase over the week before.