The project will strengthen
the global competitiveness of the South African pharmaceutical industry and
improve the continent’s resilience against other diseases and future pandemics.
Against this background, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation
and Development (BMZ) has commissioned DEG to finance the establishment of
home-grown vaccine manufacturing capacities. South Africa is the most advanced
pharmaceutical market on the continent with Aspen being Africa’s leading pharmaceutical
manufacturer.
Aspen is in the process of licensing the rights for the
first African COVID vaccines, which it will launch as Aspenovax during the
early parts of quarter 2. Aspenovax will provide Africa its own COVID vaccine,
produced on the African continent by Aspen for African patients. The production
of Aspenovax, and consequently the continent, stands to benefit from the joint
Siemens-Aspen project.
This
will include a suite of Siemens digital technologies to enhance the current
manufacturing processes at Aspen and provide enhanced production execution,
energy efficiency, product tracking, central management of the entire
production network and introduce additional energy monitoring devices, flow
instruments and temperature sensors. A key aspect of this project will also
include training and development of skills for the effective maintenance of Aspen’s
production facility in Gqeberha, in the Eastern Cape.
Sabine Dall’Omo, Chief
Executive Officer for Siemens Southern & Eastern Africa explains, ‘With our
innovative Digital Twin simulation, the production environment will be kept up
to date to be leveraged in determining the impact of strategic improvement
initiatives. The full scope of supply is aimed at improving the efficiency,
thereby reducing wastage of valuable vaccine doses while introducing energy
management to minimize carbon emissions. We are proud to collaborate with Aspen
and DEG in South Africa, thereby supporting the pharmaceutical industry to
intensify the production of vaccines globally. This partnership between Aspen,
DEG and Siemens clearly demonstrates how our digital technologies can benefit
society. Ultimately, our collaboration will accelerate the development of
vaccines thereby reducing time to market, while maintaining quality as we try
to win the race against time to save lives.”
Stephen Saad, Aspen Group Chief Executive said, “We are pleased to be able to partner
with Siemens for additional digital technologies that will further complement
our existing high-technology, state-of-the-art pharmaceutical equipment and
systems used to manufacture advanced sterile medicines, including vaccines for
the continent. Aspen has invested in excess of R3.0 billion at our
Gqeberha-based flagship sterile manufacturing site in the Eastern Cape, the
single largest investment in the pharmaceutical industry in South Africa.”
“Africa has remained vaccine
constrained, importing some 99% of its vaccine requirements and the COVID-19
pandemic highlighted the continent’s inequitable access to vaccines globally. Aspen
has manufactured over 100 million doses of the Janssen COVID-vaccine and, in
November 2021, we secured a non-binding agreement to manufacture and sell Aspenovax,
Aspen’s own brand of the vaccine in Africa thereby providing a COVID-19 vaccine made in
Africa for Africa,” added Saad.