In yet another blow to South Africa’s flagging vaccination programme, millions of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses meant to be used have been declared unfit for use. This is due to contamination concerns at one of the group’s facilities in the US.
The US Food and Drug Administration said that the doses were not suitable for use. Upon reviewing this decision, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) said in a statement that it had decided “not to release vaccine produced using the drug substance batches that were not suitable”.
J&J’s Emergent plant was ordered to pause production in April several weeks after it was determined that batches of a substance used to produce the vaccine were cross-contaminated with ingredients from another jab made by Anglo-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca. The FDA is yet to allow the factory to reopen.
Acknowledging the setback in South Africa’s vaccination programme, acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said Saturday that the batches concerned were stored in a high-security laboratory in Port Elizabeth belonging to drugmaker Aspen. Aspen meanwhile promised that it is ramping up production elsewhere to meet the shortfall, and President Ramaphosa said that he discussed with President Biden the possibility of receiving US vaccine donations.
Along with other countries South Africa, is pushing for a patent waiver on COVID vaccines to allow low cost production of generics.
“If we are to save lives and end the pandemic, we need to expand and diversify manufacturing and get medical products to treat, combat and prevent the pandemic to as many people as quickly as possible,” President Cyril Ramaphosa told the G7 group of wealthy nations meeting in Britain on Sunday. The country needs 31 million doses of the J&J vaccine to help vaccinate its population of 59 million.
South Africa has secured 30 million doses of the highly effective Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, but is a two-dose vaccine which has significant cold chain requirements.
Emergency shipment
SAHPRA stated that there is a new delivery of approximately 300 000 J&J doses “that have been cleared by the US FDA that meet the requirements and will subsequently be released and shipped to South Africa.” The expiry date of these doses have been extended, and will be ready for administration to South African teachers within days.
Vaccinations were already paused in April after reports of rare cases of blood clots. And in February, South Africa rejected over 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine as it was deemed ineffective. The J&J vaccines were already facing expiry as they had been removed from long term storage.
South Africa has only vaccinated just over 1% of its population but as far as can be ascertained with limited testing in Africa is the hardest hit by COVID on the continent, with over 1.7 million recorded cases.
Source: Eyewitness News
