Moneyweb
Aspen Pharmacare has announced that it will be producing an Aspen-branded Covid19 vaccine, Aspenovax, following an agreement between one of its subsidiaries, Aspen SA Operations and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a division of Johnson and Johnson.
In a statement on Tuesday, Aspen said under the Agreement, it had secured the enabling intellectual property from Johnson & Johnson, with a good faith undertaking to discuss the expansion of the Agreement to include any new versions of the drug substance, and the applicable terms thereof.
The Agreement runs until 31 December 2026.
The terms of the Agreement expand the existing technical transfer and manufacturing agreements between the Parties to grant Aspen SA Operations the rights to manufacture finished Aspenovax products from drug substances supplied by Johnson & Johnson.
The South African company will then make available Aspenovax to markets in Africa through transactions with designated multilateral organisations and with national governments of member states of the African Union.
Aspen Group CEO, Stephen Saad, said with the conclusion of this agreement, their vision for Africa's own vaccine, has become a reality.
"This has been achieved through tremendous teamwork and collaboration between Johnson & Johnson and Aspen. Through this agreement and their earlier actions, Johnson & Johnson has demonstrated its commitment to our continent," he said.
The Agreement was endorsed by the World Health Organisation, the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the AU special envoy on COVID, the Vaccine Alliance, CEPI, Afreximbank, and the Africa Union Africa Vaccine Delivery Alliance for COVID-19.
Strive Masiyiwa, the AU special envoy on COVID and Head of the AVAT Trust, hailed the agreement as the single biggest win for the African continent in the fight against covid and future pandemics.
"It is a timely milestone and an important step in making sure that the gross vaccine inequality we witnessed in the early part of the pandemic is not repeated."
Johnson and Johnson said expanding global vaccination coverage is critically important to controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and reducing the risk of the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants.
"From the outset of this pandemic we aimed to develop a simple-to-use and accessible vaccine that could be transported around the world through standard vaccine distribution channels," said Martin Fitchet, M.D., Head of Global Public Health, Johnson & Johnson, Cilag GmbH International.
