Setting up vaccine production in Africa: Jens Spahn traveled to South Africa with this goal last year, amid much media hype.

Together with French President Emmanuel Macron, the then German Minister of Health announced an investment initiative to make vaccines immediately available in Africa.

The World Health Organization (WHO) spoke of a "tipping point".

We are on the way to a fairer distribution of Covid vaccines around the world.

Claudia Bröll

Political correspondent for Africa based in Cape Town.

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Almost twelve months later, hopes have been dampened.

The South African pharmaceutical company Aspen announced that it had not received a single order for its Covid vaccine Aspenovax.

If this doesn't change soon, the production facility will have to be used for other purposes.

Aspen is the first and so far only company in South Africa to roll off the assembly line for Covid vaccines.

It fills and packages Johnson & Johnson's vaccine.

It should soon be sold under its own brand name Aspenovax, Aspen speaks of a "Covid vaccine produced in Africa for the African continent".

The J&J vaccine was first given at the start of the pandemic in South Africa, initially to healthcare workers as part of a pilot study.

Improve local care

The group, which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, had also received money from Germany to expand its plant in Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth.

Deutsche Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) provided a EUR 144 million loan as part of a EUR 600 million financing package from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Investment Company and other international development finance institutions.

The funding is aimed at improving local medical care, said a DEG spokeswoman.

"It is in our interest to support the production of low-cost medicines and vaccines in Africa." In a contract with Siemens, it was also agreed that the Munich-based company would support Aspen with digital solutions for the production process.

"If there are still no orders, it will be very difficult to keep the production lines ready," board member Stavros Nicolaou told Cape Talk radio on Wednesday.

In this case one would have to go back to previous products such as anesthetics and other sterile medicines.

The plant was originally built for sterile injection solutions.

According to the group's latest annual report, the capacity in Gqeberha should be increased from 300 million cans to 450 million in February this year and to 700 million cans by 2023.

In Africa, the Covid vaccinations had started late because industrialized countries had hoarded vaccines for their own populations.

This unequal treatment in a pandemic triggered loud protests from African governments and institutions such as the WHO.

In order to be independent from the rest of the world, there was a call for own vaccine production.

Vaccines are now plentiful.

But the demand is lame.

In some countries, vaccines had to be destroyed because they were past their expiry date.

The African Union (AU) Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) blames logistical problems and vaccine skepticism.

Only 16 percent of the population in Africa are fully vaccinated, compared to 30 percent in South Africa.

Despite the recent significant drop in the number of infections and the lifting of almost all restrictions, it is probably too early to give the all-clear.

South Africa's health minister recently announced a fifth wave of infections.

Africa CDC continues to campaign relentlessly for vaccination and appeals to African governments to support local producers.

It would be short-sighted to rely solely on donated vaccines in the future, said Africa CDC chief John Nkengasong.

Most African countries receive vaccines through the WHO's Covax initiative and through the AU.

Advocates of vaccine production in Africa also point out that the plants could later be used for vaccines against other diseases.

Local manufacture of the vaccines

Aspen is not the only company in South Africa looking to make Covid vaccines.

The semi-state company Biovac has signed a contract with Biontech, but is not yet producing.

In addition, a technology transfer hub initiated by the WHO was opened in Cape Town in February.

There, a team of researchers recreated Moderna's vaccine itself.

Shortly before, South African-born American billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong had opened a vaccine production campus.

The African Union wants all vaccines administered in Africa to be locally produced by 2040.

Currently it is only 1 percent.

Aspen, at least, is skeptical that this goal is achievable.

"If Aspen can't pull this off," said CEO Nicolaou, "then I don't see anyone else on the continent who can."