South Africa expects to receive vaccines from COVAX sufficient for 10% of its population in early 2021, Gorven said.
He said that South Africa is not well set up for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine given its extreme cold chain requirements but is most likely to access vaccines from Novavax, Johnson & Johnson and Oxford AstraZeneca.
The vaccines being tested by these pharmaceuticals are stored at fridge temperature, are cheaper than Pfizer and Moderna, and manufacturing capacity of 6 billion doses per annum is being established between them, Gorven said.
Aspen Pharmaceuticals has been contracted by Johnson & Johnson to produce 300 million vaccines in South Africa. Production may begin in the second quarter of 2021. “It remains unclear what portion of these vaccines may be made available to South Africans,” Gorven said.
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