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JSE-listed pharmaceutical company Aspen will receive $30 million (R523 million) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Norway-headquartered Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to help manufacture routine and outbreak vaccines for Africa.
The $15 million each from CEPI and the Gates Foundation is also expected to support a 10-year agreement between Aspen, which is the biggest medicine producer on the continent, and the Serum Institute of India, which aims to expand the supply and sourcing of vaccines manufactured in Africa.
"We thank both CEPI and the Gates Foundation for their commitment to support regional manufacture for Africa. Their commitment, together with our partnership with Serum, is an important first step in ensuring expanded and enduring equitable access to a pipeline of medicines and vaccines manufactured in Africa for Africans," Aspen CEO Stephen Saad said in a statement on Monday.
"Aspen has a proven capability of being at the forefront of pandemic preparedness for the continent - from ARVs to Covid vaccines. This support will ensure we can continue to invest and expand our capacities, secure in the knowledge of future offtakes."
In March the company signed a contract with Johnson & Johnson to manufacture and sell an Aspen-branded Covid-19 vaccine, Aspenovax, throughout Africa. It also packaged and filled vials of the US company’s vaccine at its plant in Gqeberha.
Aspen's ambition
Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, the acting director for Africa Centres for Disease Control, said the agreement was a demonstration of Aspen’s "ambition to further enhance Africa’s vaccine localisation efforts, its intention to diversify the pipeline for Africa-specific vaccines and to improve Africa’s ability to respond to pandemic outbreaks."
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman said expanding the availability of affordable, high-quality vaccines "is one of the best ways to improve health outcomes and reduce preventable deaths".
"We’re very pleased to support this agreement between Aspen and Serum Institute, which has the potential to expand vaccine production and supply in Africa, increase vaccination rates, improve pandemic preparedness, and broadly strengthen global health security."
Aspen will manufacture and distribute four routine vaccines in Africa — Pneumococcal, Rotavirus, Polyvalent Meningococcal, and Hexavalent.
The company's share price was up 1.5% on Monday morning.
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