Pfizer vaccine to be manufactured in a South African firm: The first in the African Continent

By Gargi Bagchi – Managing Editor, The African Gazette                 Inequalities in implementation of vaccination programs of specific geographies is a harsh reality in the face of the deadly pandemic. According to a data from Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with a population of 1.3 billion, the African continent, until date has received minimum of one shot for just 2% of the population. This is quite a low figure in relation to the developed countries of the world.

However, there’s a good news in the form of an announcement on July 21, 2021 made by Pfizer. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine will be produced in South Africa by the Biovac Institute, Cape Town, which should assist in addressing Africa’s dire requirement for more vaccines in the midst of growing number of COVID cases.

Biovac is expected to get a huge batch of vaccine ingredients from Europe, post which the institute would blend the constituents and package the product for distribution amongst 54 African countries, after putting them in vials. Production is scheduled to commence from 2022 and the target is to reach greater than 100 million finished doses on an annual basis. The chief executive of Biovac Dr. Morena Makhoana considers this development a critical step for increasing Africa’s accessibility to an effective vaccination strategy to fight against COVID-19.

Currently, South Africa is dependent on the Pfizer vaccine for its mass inoculation program and has bought 40 million doses that are delivered on a weekly basis.

Aspen Pharmacare is already producing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in South Africa in the similar process of ‘fill and finish’, which is being distributed across the entire continent.

With a goal to vaccinate around 67% of its population by next year February, South Africa’s vaccination drive has certainly ramped up after a slow start with more than 220,000 people being vaccinated on the weekdays.

Presently Africa’s dependence is around the range of 99% on imported vaccines. According to Gayle Smith who is the United States Global COVID-19 Response Coordinator, USA is investing heavily in both Senegal and South Africa to assist in increasing the pace and capacity of Africa to manufacture its own vaccines.

As published in Pfizer’s site – in the words of Dr. Morena Makhoana, CEO of Biovac – ‘We are thrilled to collaborate with Pfizer and BioNTech to produce and distribute the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine within Africa. This is testament of the long-standing relationship we have had with Pfizer through the Prevenar 13 vaccine. This is a critical step forward in strengthening sustainable access to a vaccine in the fight against this tragic, worldwide pandemic. We believe this collaboration will create opportunity to more broadly distribute vaccine doses to people in harder-to-reach communities, especially those on the African continent.”

Vaccines are vital towards curbing the spread of COVID-19 and Africa’s future certainly looks buoyant with regard to battling the pandemic in the wake of these recent developments.

Gargi – Currently Managing Editor of The African Gazette, she has been an independent content creator, researcher and editing professional. With 12+ years of experience across diverse writing genres, Gargi comes with an exposure of working with a multitude of global clients in the digital space. She has a penchant for reading and researching on new topics, and enjoys listening to music and traveling. She can be contacted through Email or Linkedin

The post Pfizer vaccine to be manufactured in a South African firm: The first in the African Continent first appeared on The African Gazette.