African Union Halts AstraZeneca Vaccine Purchases Over Supply Concerns

The African Union has decided to stop plans to secure
Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines because of supply concerns
from India’s Serum Institute.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention will
instead focus on the single-shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson,
said John Nkengasong, the AU’s disease control unit’s director.

The decision not to buy AstraZeneca is so as “not to duplicate
efforts”, Nkengasong said. African countries will still receive the
AstraZeneca jab through the World Health Organization’s global
vaccine-sharing facility Covax.

“We didn’t want to compete with Covax,” he told the Financial
Times. “[AstraZeneca] vaccines from the Serum Institute of India
are coming to the continent, anyway.” Nkengasong stressed that the
decision had “nothing to do” with concerns in Europe about blood
clots, insisting that “we recommend the use of the [AstraZeneca]
vaccine”.

Last month India, one of the world’s biggest vaccine producers,
froze all major exports of jabs to prioritise local vaccinations
amid an accelerating second wave of coronavirus infections.

The AU’s decision is the latest blow to AstraZeneca’s troubled
vaccine rollout, following rulings by UK and European regulators
that found a link between the jab and very rare blood clots on
Wednesday. Spain and Italy have moved to limit the use of the
AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged above 60, and the UK to those
aged over 30.

Delays in deliveries of AstraZeneca doses were hampering
vaccination drives across Africa, Nkengasong said, and the ability
to forecast when doses will be available is vital when planning
those efforts.

This latest decision “was just a clear understanding of how not
to duplicate efforts with the Serum Institute, so that we
complement each other rather than duplicate efforts”, he said
earlier, during a press briefing. Last week, J&J announced an
agreement to supply the AU with up to 400m doses of the jab by the
third quarter of the year.

Since it was agreed “Covax would get those [AstraZeneca] doses
and start with the vaccination programme, we now shifted our
efforts to the Johnson & Johnson arrangement and that is what led
to the agreement of last week, so that the Serum Institute of India
was enabled to be able to supply doses to the Covax mechanism”, he
added during Thursday’s briefing.

In January, Nkengasong said the Africa CDC was planning to
receive another 400m shots of AstraZeneca from the Serum Institute,
in addition to 270m previously discussed. These vaccines have not
arrived.

The WHO has said the aim of Covax is to vaccinate at least 20
per cent of Africans with 600m doses of the AstraZeneca jab by the
end of the year.

“Our goal is to get to 60 per cent. If Covax gets to 20 per
cent, then we can go and find additional doses to get to 60. If
Covax goes to AstraZeneca to get those doses, we can then go to
Johnson & Johnson to find the remaining vaccines,” Nkengasong
added.

The African Union has decided to stop plans to secure
Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines because of supply concerns
from India’s Serum Institute.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention will
instead focus on the single-shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson,
said John Nkengasong, the AU’s disease control unit’s director.

The decision not to buy AstraZeneca is so as “not to duplicate
efforts”, Nkengasong said. African countries will still receive the
AstraZeneca jab through the World Health Organization’s global
vaccine-sharing facility Covax.

“We didn’t want to compete with Covax,” he told the Financial
Times. “[AstraZeneca] vaccines from the Serum Institute of India
are coming to the continent, anyway.” Nkengasong stressed that the
decision had “nothing to do” with concerns in Europe about blood
clots, insisting that “we recommend the use of the [AstraZeneca]
vaccine”.

Last month India, one of the world’s biggest vaccine producers,
froze all major exports of jabs to prioritise local vaccinations
amid an accelerating second wave of coronavirus infections.

The AU’s decision is the latest blow to AstraZeneca’s troubled
vaccine rollout, following rulings by UK and European regulators
that found a link between the jab and very rare blood clots on
Wednesday. Spain and Italy have moved to limit the use of the
AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged above 60, and the UK to those
aged over 30.

Delays in deliveries of AstraZeneca doses were hampering
vaccination drives across Africa, Nkengasong said, and the ability
to forecast when doses will be available is vital when planning
those efforts.

This latest decision “was just a clear understanding of how not
to duplicate efforts with the Serum Institute, so that we
complement each other rather than duplicate efforts”, he said
earlier, during a press briefing. Last week, J&J announced an
agreement to supply the AU with up to 400m doses of the jab by the
third quarter of the year.

Since it was agreed “Covax would get those [AstraZeneca] doses
and start with the vaccination programme, we now shifted our
efforts to the Johnson & Johnson arrangement and that is what led
to the agreement of last week, so that the Serum Institute of India
was enabled to be able to supply doses to the Covax mechanism”, he
added during Thursday’s briefing.

In January, Nkengasong said the Africa CDC was planning to
receive another 400m shots of AstraZeneca from the Serum Institute,
in addition to 270m previously discussed. These vaccines have not
arrived.

The WHO has said the aim of Covax is to vaccinate at least 20
per cent of Africans with 600m doses of the AstraZeneca jab by the
end of the year.

“Our goal is to get to 60 per cent. If Covax gets to 20 per
cent, then we can go and find additional doses to get to 60. If
Covax goes to AstraZeneca to get those doses, we can then go to
Johnson & Johnson to find the remaining vaccines,” Nkengasong
added.