Promit Mokherjee, Jennifer Rigby

JOHANNESBURG/LONDON – The World Health Organization and Gavi (COVID-19) have no plans for immediate purchases of shots manufactured by Aspen Pharmacare.

Aspen completed a deal in March to package, sell and distribute Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:)’s vaccine in what was lauded as a game-changing moment for an under-vaccinated continent frustrated by sluggish Western handouts.

The South African firm’s hopes of high demand for vaccines in Africa where only a sixth are fully vaccinated have failed to materialize. If orders don’t pick up, the CEO said that they would have to redeploy half their vaccine production capacities.

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Africa’s most important public health agency, has asked that organisations purchasing shots for Africa prioritise sourcing African products.

COVAX, a global COVID-19 vaccination-sharing programme that has been instrumental in Africa’s pandemic response to the epidemic of cholera (1999), currently does not have plans to place any orders for Aspen because there is too much stock.

COVAX has the backing of the WHO, Gavi (global vaccine alliance) and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

Gavi spokeswoman said, “In Aspen the current overall demand means that we are not currently in a position for to buy large quantities vaccines.”

We are currently in discussions to determine if collaboration is possible as part of growing regional supply.

Kate O’Brien (the WHO’s Director for Immunization, Vaccines, and Biologicals) stated that COVAX has already obtained the required 380 million doses for its global program for the second quarter and the third quarters.

She told Reuters that COVAX… is more in demand than it currently has, which makes it a great place to be,” she said.

LOCAL PRODUCTION AT RISK

Africa struggled initially to obtain COVID-19 shot supplies because wealthy nations used their buying power to get early supplies. There was a need to increase the continent’s vaccine manufacturing capacity.

African Union’s aim is to produce 60% (covering everything from measles to COVID) of routine vaccines. It will administer these vaccines locally within Africa by 2040.

European Union as well as the WHO are supporting regional vaccine manufacturing efforts. South Africa, Senegal and Rwanda are also looking to create vaccine production centers.

Willis Akhwale, chair of Kenya’s National Taskforce on Vaccine Deployment, said the country’s twin initiatives to produce vaccines – the publicly funded Kenya Biovax Institute Ltd and a private initiative from drug company Moderna (NASDAQ:) – were on track.

“We considered other COVID-19 vaccines,” said he, adding that the possibility of a malaria vaccine, antivenom, or childhood vaccines was also possible.

Recent shortages of COVID-19 vaccinations have been replaced by a glut. This is due to increased donations to COVAX, as well as supplies from drugmakers. The result has been that African governments are struggling to keep up with the growing demand for vaccines.

Stephen Saad CEO at Aspen warned of the dangers of a lack of demand, putting in doubt the viability local production and threatening Africa’s future vaccination security.

“There are lives at stake,” he said to Reuters. He also stated that if Africa and the rest the world didn’t support it’s capabilities then the continent would continue to be in the bottom of the pandemic queue.

The Biovac Institute was a South African producer of vaccines and made a deal last year with Pfizer BioNTech will manufacture approximately 100 million doses per year of its COVID-19 vaccine in Africa (AU) (NYSE:). Production of the COVID-19 vaccine for Africa is expected to begin in late 2012.

Biovac Institute CEO Morena Mkhoana expressed concern that there is not enough demand. “This highlights the need for dedicated vaccine capability to allow entities to withstand all the ups, downs and challenges that the vaccine industry can throw at them,” Makhoana said. 

Ayoade alakija, the co-chair of AU-backed African Vaccine Delivery Alliance said it was unfair that purchasing organisations were blamed for the lackluster demand.

She said that hoarding in countries with high income was a serious problem, however, African governments were now also responsible for an oversupply of vaccines. These countries had failed to implement successful mass vaccination campaigns, and their ability to absorb vaccines.

She said that “African political leaders… seem to have moved from saying “we don’t have vaccines” to making vaccines and have forgotten about the steps between.”