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By Reuters 
9h ago
JOHANNESBURG – Aspen Pharmacare could begin production of Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines in South Africa in late March or early April if all approvals are in place, a senior company executive said.
All the vaccines produced will be exported to J&J and will be part of its global supply inventory, added Stavros Nicolaou, group senior executive, strategic trading in Aspen.
“We are going to receive a technology transfer to contract manufacturing for them (J&J) … Aspen currently has the capacity to manufacture up to 300 million doses of Covid vaccines,” Nicolaou said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday, adding that these be exported to J&J.
The South African government is in talks with J&J in an effort to secure some of this product for its own consumption. J&J is in the final phase of its clinical trials and is likely to announce the results in late January, Nicolaou added.
The South African Ministry of Health said late Thursday that negotiations on obtaining a vaccine are at an advanced stage with J&J. He said he will announce the developments soon.
Johnson & Johnson, in an emailed response to Reuters, said it is committed to “continuing engagement with the South African government” on the vaccine. But he did not give details on the status of the negotiations.
The government has been criticized by scientists and health workers for acting too slowly in obtaining Covid-19 vaccines to inoculate South Africans.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Thursday that South Africa plans to receive its first vaccines in February and could vaccinate up to 40 million people over a year to achieve herd immunity.
But the government has not signed large bilateral agreements with any of the vaccine manufacturers, although it said the country would receive 1.5 million vaccines from the Serum Institute of India (SII).
The government is also sourcing vaccines from the COVAX Facility, a global distribution scheme under which South Africa will begin receiving vaccines by the second quarter of 2021 for 10% of its population of 58 million.
Nicolaou said he was not aware of the status of the negotiations, but that the government had requested that Aspen “insist” on J&J to drop some vaccines.
Reuters
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