Ramaphosa: COVID-19 vaccine to be manufactured in SA

As the world continues its search for a COVID-19 vaccine, President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that a local company will be partnering with Johnson & Johnson, to manufacture and package its candidate.

Ramaphosa addressed the nation on Wednesday, 11 November 2020, on the latest developments pertaining to the country’s battle against the coronavirus.

He said Aspen Pharmacare, had entered into a preliminary agreement with the multinational firm – a move which the president said would benefit South Africans first.

“In recognition of the country’s manufacturing capability, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world, Johnson & Johnson, has entered into a preliminary agreement with a local company, Aspen Pharmacare, to manufacture and package its candidate vaccine,” Ramaphosa said.

The president added that Aspen had the capacity to manufacture 300 million doses of the candidate vaccine at its Nelson Mandela Bay plant in the Eastern Cape.

“This … life-saving medical product that will be needed across the world, which will be manufactured by South African workers,” he said.

Ramaphosa said the country was collaborating with several multinational pharmaceutical giants to obtain a safe and effective vaccine for people and is contributing towards the availability of the vaccine on the rest of the continent.

Ramaphosa: Africa needs billions for COVID-19 vaccine

The president said Africa would need at least $12 billion (approximately R187 billion) to develop an effective vaccine which could help counter the spread of the respiratory disease.

“Equitable access to an effective vaccine is vital to the successful containment of this pandemic. Earlier this week, the world witnessed a game-changer in the world of science regarding the development of a vaccine. This is the first evidence that an effective vaccine against a coronavirus is possible,”

President Cyril Ramaphosa

It was revealed just days before that a vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections. The vaccine was tested on 43,500 people in six countries – including South Africa – and there have been no safety concerns raised yet.

“This changes our perspective of the future of the Coronavirus pandemic. This development brings new hope in our fight against this virus,” Ramaphosa said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are 42 COVID-19 candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation of which 10 are in Phase three trials. Whereas another 151 candidate vaccines are in preclinical evaluation.