"It was widely hailed as a great achievement for
"COVAX has placed orders for 2.1 billion doses of COVID vaccines and not a single one has been placed with
“It's a cardinal sin to have valuable sterile manufacturing capacity and not put it to use," said Nicolaou. "We cannot leave this production capacity idle. We will have to repivot from vaccine manufacturing and return to producing anesthetics unless in the short term we get firm orders for our COVID-19 vaccine.”
Nicolaou said the lack of orders “is not great for
At a press briefing on Thursday, Dr.
“It is unfortunate that this plant did not receive enough orders,” he said, saying that
In a statement, Gavi said
But it said when J&J fulfilled its COVAX order, those shots came from outside the continent.
“COVAX is still under contract with J&J and we would be very happy for any doses that we are still expecting to be supplied by Aspen,” Gavi said. “We have communicated this to J&J. However, again this is solely a decision that rests with J&J.”
J&J did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Health officials have repeatedly decried the concentration of vaccine production in rich countries, saying the lack of manufacturing capacity in poorer countries was among several factors that put them at the back of the line when COVID-19 vaccines were initially made last year.
Some experts said
“The global community spends billions of dollars to shore up military defenses that might never get used, but refuses to spend a fraction of that to support global health defense,” said
He said global purchasers like COVAX should support manufacturers in poorer countries and described globally distributed vaccine manufacturing as “our protection against this virus.”
“Africans have been totally failed by the global community, their governments, and agencies,” he lamented, noting that as rich countries roll out their fourth doses, most Africans haven’t even had one.
The production of locally-made shots at
While nearly 70% of people in rich countries have been immunized against the coronavirus, just 17% of
Cheng reported from
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