Africa has few options for procuring Covid-19 vaccines as the outbreak worsens in many parts of the continent, the South African presidency said.
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE has offered to provide Africa with 50 million Covid-19 vaccines for health workers between March and the end of this year, the presidency said in a response to Bloomberg on Sunday. While Moderna Inc. it has no supplies for Africa AstraZeneca Plc has no photos for the continent in 2021 and has instructed the African Union to negotiate with Serum Institute of India Ltd., which makes the vaccine on behalf of AstraZeneca. The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, is the President of the African Union.
Ramaphosa’s response comes after days of offensive criticism in South Africa over the country’s vaccination strategy by health leaders, trade unions and opposition parties. Even though four vaccine studies are underway in the country, South Africa has only arranged to purchase enough photos for 10% of its 60 million population through the Covax initiative, which is designed to ensure equitable access to vaccines. They will probably start arriving in the second quarter. Some African countries have their own vaccine procurement plans. Most don’t.
“We are working hard in South Africa and on the continent to protect our people against Covid-19,” the presidency said.
South Africa has a record number of infections and deaths, and neighboring Zimbabwe is in a strict 30-day blockade. South African economy it probably contracted the most in nine decades last year, according to official estimates.
In an e-mailed statement, an AstraZeneca representative said the company had “created a series of supply chains around the world to provide a broad and equitable supply of the vaccine.” The statement named Covax and the Indian Serum Institute as the main channels through which African countries can access vaccines.
“Prohibitive” cost
The cost of Pfizer vaccines is “prohibitive,” the presidency said. A Pfizer representative confirmed talks with the African Union, refusing to provide further details.
In a subsequent statement, a UK-based Pfizer representative said the company remained “firmly committed to having equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines”.
“We have allocated doses for supply to low- and middle-income countries at a non-profit price and we are actively working with governments around the world,” he wrote by e-mail. statement said.
There are discussions with Johnson & Johnson, which is conducting a lawsuit in South Africa and plans to deliver 300 million doses a year to a factory in the country owned by Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd. when the shooting is approved.
J&J “has not clarified whether Africa will benefit from vaccines manufactured in South Africa,” the presidency said. “We still have to negotiate the affordable price for Africa.”
South Africa is in direct talks with vaccine suppliers, including J&J, AstraZeneca and Pfizer, on supplies to the country, the presidency said. The South African Health Product Regulatory Authority is using a so-called ongoing review, which allows it to assess vaccine data as they become available during the studies to assess J & J’s stroke. AstraZeneca and Pfizer when applied.
Wealthier nations
African countries would have been in a better position to gain early access to AstraZeneca vaccines and other vaccines if they had been “as strategic” as richer nations and had begun discussions directly with producers and in parallel with Early efforts to secure access to Covax, Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology and head of the South African arm of the AstraZeneca trial, told Bloomberg.
“Covax Facility, while noble in its mission of social solidarity for equitable access to vaccines, it was never able to break the legacy of the necessary gap before life-saving vaccines became available to low- and middle-income countries, ”said Madhi.
While at least 29 countries, from Mexico to Germany, have begun inoculating their populations against the virus, South Africa has not yet concluded any supply agreements with pharmaceutical companies. Kenya, a much poorer country than South Africa, expects to receive vaccines in late January or next month, Nairobi’s Standard newspaper reported Sunday, citing the country’s health secretary. He did not specify which vaccine.
On Saturday, an opinion piece published in the local media and signed by senior members of the Progressive Health Forum, which includes heads of medical associations and academics, called for Ramaphosa to fire health department officials for their failure to provide vaccine. .
For more about the review article, click here
“As a health worker with friends and colleagues at the forefront and knowing the health care workers who contracted Covid-19 and died on duty, we are obliged to try to speed up access to the vaccine in order to do its job,” he said. said Glenda Gray, the president South African Medical Research Council and a member of the forum in response to questions.
South Africa, with over 1.09 million confirmed Covid-19 infections and 29,175 deaths, is the most affected country on the African continent.
– With the assistance of Golnar Motevalli
(Updates with comments from AstraZeneca in the sixth paragraph, Pfizer from the seventh.)