BLSA CEO’s letter
11 January 2021
In my last letter of 2020, I looked forward to a year in which we finally overcome the pandemic thanks to the vaccine. I had written earlier that it was critical for South Africa to ensure it is among the first countries to get the vaccine.
Well, a lot has happened on this front over the festive season. While many were taking a well-earned break, it became clear that government had not yet done the basics in developing a vaccine strategy. Offers of cost-price vaccines from major manufacturers had gone unanswered.
Despite South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare having secured a contract to make 300-million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the government had ordered none. Unlike many other developed and developing countries, South Africa had not negotiated any “advance market commitments” with manufacturers to buy vaccines conditional on their successful approval following trials.
The only commitment government had made was to the global Covax initiative to support developing countries with vaccine access, which would provide vaccines to cover only 10% of the population. But then we missed the first payment on that scheme.