Vaccines manufactured by SA have been exported to other places.
- The EU stated that it has only reached a temporary agreement with South Africa to import Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
- Previously, there were reports that vaccines produced in South Australia were shipped elsewhere.
- The WHO condemned the reports on Wednesday.
The European Commission said on Thursday that it has reached an interim agreement with South Africa to use a factory there to bottle Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine imported into the European Union.
The deal highlights the complexity of factories producing vaccines all over the world and may raise concerns about the ability of drugmakers to negotiate supply agreements with countries.
On Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that the news that Johnson & Johnson vaccines are being exported from South Africa to the EU shocked him because the EU’s vaccination rate is already very high, and in many African countries, the vaccination rate is even Not the highest yet. Vulnerable groups have been vaccinated.
A spokesperson for the European Commission told reporters on Thursday that Johnson & Johnson reached an agreement with South Africa after it encountered a problem in the production of vaccines at a plant belonging to its partner Emergent Biosolutions in the United States.
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According to the agreement, Aspen Pharmacare will bottle vaccine substances produced elsewhere, and then transfer the completed doses to South Africa and the European Union.
A Johnson & Johnson factory in Leiden, the Netherlands, is its main global producer of Covid-19 vaccine.
An EU spokesperson said that starting from September, Johnson & Johnson will transfer all vaccine bottling operations to the EU to Leiden.
Johnson & Johnson did not immediately comment.
On Monday, the New York Times reported on South Africa’s export of vaccines to the European Union, confirming earlier public statements made by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and South African drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare that the company bottling Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
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The newspaper cited a confidential contract between Johnson & Johnson and the South African government, saying that the agreement prevented the country from imposing restrictions on vaccine exports against its will.
According to internal EU documents seen by Reuters, Johnson & Johnson also negotiated a complex supply chain that involved US companies, despite the opposition from EU countries, under the contract with the EU.
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On Thursday, the WHO softened its comments on the EU-South Africa agreement. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said at a press conference that this arrangement is “probably” part of the investment in vaccine development and production in Africa.
The European Union is leading global investment to establish vaccine “centers” in Africa (including South Africa and Senegal) to increase the continent’s capacity to produce Covid-19 vaccines.
The Aspen plant does not appear in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine production base approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which means that these vaccines cannot be used in the EU, although they may be re-exported.
EMA was unable to comment immediately.
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The European Commission did not answer questions about how EU countries will deal with the J&J dose imported from South Africa. The EU countries are the owners of vaccines and decide how to use them.
Public data from the European Union shows that as of Thursday, Johnson & Johnson has provided 21.5 million doses of vaccine to the European Union. It was supposed to ship 55 million units before the end of June.
Public data shows that of the delivered doses, only 12.9 million doses (about 60%) have been used in the EU. So far, among all EU-approved vaccines, the use rate is at least 75%. Pfizer/BioNTech injections The proportion exceeds 90%.
Many EU countries have stopped using Johnson & Johnson due to health problems. The European Union has pledged to donate at least 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to poorer countries by the end of the year, most of which are in Africa.
