Africa’s top public health body has urged all those buying COVID-19 vaccines for the continent to place orders with South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare, saying the market was key to developing vaccine manufacturing on the continent.
The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says it was doing everything it could behind the scenes to prevent a situation where Aspen closes its facility due to a lack of orders.
A company executive says this was hailed as a game-changing moment for an under-vaccinated continent frustrated by sluggish Western handouts, but Aspen’s COVID-19 vaccine plant now risks shutting down after receiving not a single order.