Covid-19 vaccine: Now Aspen Pharmacare gets R10 billion funding boost

South African pharmaceutical firm, Aspen Pharmacare Holdings, has just clinched more than R10 billion in foreign investment to boost the development of vaccines, including the Covid-19 vaccine, on the continent.

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), International Finance Corporation of the World Bank (IFC), the French Development institution Proparco, and DEG – the German development finance institution, announced a €600 million (R10,175, 988 000 billion) long-term joint financing package for Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited on Wednesday. The leading pharmaceutical company has played a major role in producing COVID-19 treatment therapies and vaccines in Africa.

 The long-term financing package, which is subject to the fulfillment of certain conditions precedent hs been mobilised by IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. It includes €200 million from IFC’s own account, €156 million from Proparco, a subsidiary of Agence Française de Développement (AFD Group), €144 million arranged by DEG, and €100 million from DFC. It’s the largest healthcare investment and mobilisation IFC has led globally to date.

 The announcement about the financing package for Aspen comes as governments across Africa have called on the international community to bolster the continent’s vaccine supply chain to respond to COVID-19 and promote longer-term health sector resilience.

 The financing will help Aspen, Africa’s largest pharmaceutical company, to refinance existing debt and strengthen the company’s balance sheet, supporting Aspen’s operations including production of vaccines, and other therapies in African and emerging markets. The four development finance institutions also aim to use the partnership with Aspen to facilitate an increase in vaccine manufacturing know-how and knowledge sharing in Africa.

Aspen has partnered with Johnson & Johnson to compound, finish, fill and package the Janssen (a Johnson & Johnson company) COVID-19 vaccine at its sterile facility in South Africa. The firm recently built a fully certified sterile injectables facility at its existing site at Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth). This enabled Aspen was to offer Johnson & Johnson filling, finishing and packaging capacity for its COVID-19 vaccine. The first batches have already been manufactured.

 “We are grateful for the opportunity to access this funding package arranged by IFC. Aspen’s teams are working tirelessly to optimise production of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for Africa at our manufacturing site in Gqeberha, South Africa,” Aspen CEO, Stephen Saad, said.

“We are actively seeking opportunities to further extend and capacitate COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing at this world class production facility. Aspen is seeking to play a meaningful role in contributing to the objective of delivering the majority of Africa’s needs from production sites located in Africa.”

Makhtar Diop, IFC’s Managing Director said Covid-19 had highlighted Africa’s reliance on global vaccine supply chains, which left the continent vulnerable to disruptions and delays.

“By partnering with Aspen, a leading vaccine manufacturer in Africa, and collaborating with partners in the development finance community, the World Bank Group can contribute to the continent’s continued vaccine manufacturing development, and support knowledge sharing and technology exchanges,” Diop said.

 The African Union and Africa CDC announced in April 2021 an ambition for Africa to manufacture 60 percent of its vaccine needs on the continent by 2040. Currently, Africa manufactures only about one percent of the vaccines it uses.

AFD Group CEO and Proparco president, Remy Rioux, said local production was key to winning the battle against Covid-19 and the finance plan would help to close the vaccine access gap between Africa and Western countries.

DEG management board member, Monika Beck, said it was essential to join forces with the private sector to fight the pandemic.

 “DFC is proud to be working with our partners at IFC, Proparco, and DEG to support critical vaccine production efforts on the African continent, in alignment with President Biden’s strategy to bring an end to the pandemic. The DFC’s support for Aspen expands critical manufacturing abroad, in Africa, for Africa,” DFC’s COO, David Marchick said. 

“This project is the first of many that will help build local capacity and create self-reliance for regions around the world, and will help immediately address the current pandemic while also boosting future pandemic preparedness efforts,” he added.

 The World Bank Group has been scaling up support to countries to produce, acquire and deliver vaccines to more people, particularly in Africa. The World Bank Group is providing billions of dollars in vaccine financing to help countries purchase and distribute vaccines in order to address readiness issues. IFC’s investment in Aspen falls under its Global Health Platform launched in July 2020 to help developing countries fight the coronavirus pandemic and increase their healthcare systems’ resilience.