Africa’s first COVID vaccine factory closes due to lack of demand

The first African factory producing vaccines against the coronavirus pandemic says it may shut down production due to lack of demand.

The pharmaceutical company Aspen Pharmacare, which produces Johnson & Johnson vaccines in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province now risks closure.

Professor Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Center for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa, told the BBC the shutdown could affect production of other vaccines that do not affect the developed world as well as preparation for the next pandemic.

“We got millions and millions of doses… some of them with very short expiry dates and that damaged [the uptake],” he said.

He says Africa, having gone through three major waves of Covid including a very severe one without the vaccines, had decreased the uptake, the news agency reports.