Africa requires at least US$12 billion to develop and deploy a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus, African Union chairman and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.
Speaking during a live broadcast to South Africans on Wednesday night, Ramaphosa said the AU is working “through the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to acquire and fund a vaccine for the African continent.”
“It is estimated that Africa will need around $12 billion and 750 million doses of an effective vaccine,” the AU chairman said.
Earlier this week, the South African leader established a COVID-19 African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team to lead this effort.
The task team comprises eminent citizens of the continent.
He used the address on Wednesday night to announce that South Africa was collaborating with several multinational pharmaceutical companies “to obtain a safe and effective vaccine for our people and is contributing towards the availability of the vaccine in the rest of the continent.”
“In recognition of our 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,” he said.
Aspen has capacity to manufacture 300 million doses of the candidate vaccine at its Nelson Mandela Bay plant.
“This is in addition to the progress made by Biovac, a local biopharmaceutical company that is in partnership with the South African government.
“Biovac is in advanced discussion with an international vaccine manufacturer that would also enable it to locally manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine to ensure sufficient supply for our country and the continent.”
Africa has so far recorded 1,917,960 cases of COVID-19, with 46,272 deaths and 1,622,252 recoveries.
JN/APA