South Africa
World Bank announces R10bn deal to fund vaccines for SA─── 09:23 Thu, 01 Jul 2021
The World Bank and a trio of Western government agencies announced a financing package for production of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine in South Africa, part of an effort to scale global production and meet demand for billions of doses.
The R10 billion deal, announced on Wednesday, will support Aspen Pharmacare in producing 500 million doses of the shots. Of those doses, 30 million will be produced for use in South Africa in 2021, out of a total of 250 million due by the end of the year, Bloomberg reports.
The deal builds on an existing licence between Aspen and J&J and includes no new intellectual property agreement, US officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the deal.
It’s aimed at building up production of vaccines outside a handful of countries as part of the overall effort to make billions of shots needed to quell the pandemic, they said.
Moneyweb
