Pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer and BioNTech will supply up to 50 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to Africa, starting from March 2021.
This was disclosed by South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa in a Bloomberg report on Sunday. The report also disclosed that the South African Presidency warned that Africa had very limited options available for vaccines.
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- “We are working hard in South Africa and on the continent to protect our people against Covid-19,” Ramaphosa said.
In a statement, Pfizer disclosed that it was implementing a scheme to send doses to developing nations and working with government to make it feasible, the company said it was “firmly committed to equitable access for Covid-19 vaccines.”
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- “We have allocated doses for supply to low- and lower-middle-income countries at a not-for-profit price and we are actively working with governments all around the world,” Pfizer added.
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Meanwhile, pharmaceutical company, Johnson and Johnson, plans to manufacture 300 million doses in South Africa. The South African President added that it was not sure if the vaccines would benefit Africa, as a separate deal would need to be negotiated.
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Ramaphosa said,
- “Johnson and Johnson has not clarified whether Africa will benefit from vaccines manufactured in South Africa. We still have to negotiate the price that is affordable to Africa.”
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What you should know
- Nairametrics reported in December 2020, that the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, stated that Nigeria was ready for its Covid-19 vaccination strategy, revealing that the FG planned to acquire vaccines valued at N400 billion.
- Nigeria’s for Finance Minister and WTO DG hopeful, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had also disclosed that negotiations were going on with Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers to get vaccines early enough to developing countries, including Nigeria, from January 2021.
- The Federal Government said that the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19 would focus on the procurement of vaccines in the first quarter of 2021.
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