Supply fear sees Africa pivot to Johnson & Johnson in US
AFRICAN nations are looking to Johnson & Johnson to supply Covid vaccines amid fears of a slowdown in deliveries of the Astrazeneca jab.
Dr John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, said yesterday that the African Union was dropping plans to secure the Astrazeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India.
The bloc of 55 member states is now in talks with US manufacturer Johnson & Johnson to secure additional doses, after announcing in March that it had agreed a deal for 400million doses of the jab.
Last month India announced a temporary ban on vaccine exports amid a resurgence of the disease. This has hit African countries particularly hard as they are heavily reliant on the Astrazeneca vaccine being supplied via the Covax vaccine sharing facility.
Besides Covax, African nations are also getting vaccines through the African Union as well as agreeing separate deals with other vaccine makers, particularly those in China.
Johnson & Johnson has also been hit with supply problems and just 3.5million doses have been administered throughout the United States. The announcement of the pivot to the American company comes a day after UK and European regulators warned of a link between a rare type of blood clot and the Astrazeneca vaccine. The UK announced that people under 30 would be offered an alternative to the jab.
Dr Nkengasong said the decision to use Johnson & Johnson was to avoid duplication of supply between the African Union and Covax and was not related to doubts over the Astrazeneca vaccine. He described the blood clots as a “very rare side effect”.
In a separate briefing, officials from the World Health Organisation’s African office warned of a slowdown in vaccine rollout on the continent.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, director of the WHO African region, said the continent was playing “Covid-19 vaccination catch up” even before the halt in supplies from India.
Unicef, one of the key partners in the Covax facility, said yesterday that Covax had supplied vaccines to more than 100 economies. However, out of the 690million doses of vaccine administered globally, just 31.6 million — less than two per cent — have been given in Africa.