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Africa’s first Covid-19 vaccine factory has not received a single order.
JOHANNESBURG — The primary manufacturing unit in Africa licensed to provide Covid-19 vaccines for the African market has not obtained a single order and should shut down that manufacturing line inside weeks if the scenario doesn’t change, in accordance with executives of the corporate, Aspen Pharmacare.
The manufacturing unit, within the coastal South African metropolis of Gqeberha, previously often called Port Elizabeth, was celebrated as an answer to the continent’s unequal entry to vaccines when it introduced a deal to start out manufacturing Covid vaccines in November of 2021.
However no purchasers have appeared, because the gradual distribution of vaccines in Africa has left well being businesses with a backlog of provides. Business manufacturing by no means began, in what officers say is an ominous signal for different African international locations that had thought of manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines.
All through the coronavirus pandemic, many African international locations have lagged far behind a lot of the world in getting their folks vaccinated — and a few international locations have had issue distributing what doses they did get.
Lower than 20 % of the whole inhabitants in Africa is absolutely vaccinated towards the coronavirus. Officers and politicians blamed rich international locations for hoarding vaccine doses when vaccines first turned obtainable. International locations reliant on donations of vaccines had been behind the road. Constructing the capability to fabricate vaccine doses in Africa was billed as an answer to this vaccine inequity in addition to a approach to put together for future pandemics.
South African drug maker Aspen Pharmacare was lauded when it signed a take care of Johnson & Johnson in November final 12 months that might permit it to provide and market the single-dose vaccine as Aspenovax. The vaccine, similar to the vaccine created by Johnson & Johnson, was meant for the African market.
However the preliminary enthusiasm has not led to purchases, for classy causes.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, talking on Thursday at a worldwide summit on the pandemic organized by the White Home, blamed “worldwide businesses” for failing to purchase vaccines from a pioneering African producer.
“This instantly simply devalues the entire means of native manufacturing and native manufacturing of vaccines. This, girls and gents, should change,” Mr. Ramaphosa mentioned.
Gavi, a world nonprofit company that manages vaccine buying offers for low-income international locations by the Covax alliance, mentioned in an announcement that its present contract with Johnson & Johnson has prevented it from shopping for from Aspen instantly.
Gavi mentioned within the assertion: “Covax continues to be underneath contract with J & J and we’d be very completely happy for any doses that we’re nonetheless anticipating to be equipped by Aspen. Now we have communicated this to J & J. Nevertheless, once more that is solely a call that rests with J & J.”
Vaccine procurement contracts are protected by nondisclosure agreements which have made the method opaque.
Johnson & Johnson has not but responded to a request for remark.
U.S. regulators have restricted use of the Johnson & Johnson shot, preferring the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines as an alternative . However latest proof means that over time, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is stopping infections and sicknesses about as successfully because the others, and should show to supply extra sturdy safety.
Stavros Nicolaou, Aspen’s head of strategic commerce improvement, mentioned that if there aren’t any orders within the subsequent six weeks, Aspen plans to repurpose the sterile manufacturing line to provide anesthetics and different medicine.
“That good will,” that accompanied the preliminary launch, mentioned Mr. Nicolau, has “not been matched with orders from the multilateral procurement businesses.”
In talks with multilateral businesses, Aspen hoped orders would roll in initially of 2022, in time for it to start out producing industrial batches of the Aspenovax vaccine by the tip of March.
However by then businesses had already secured sufficient vaccines from different sources to start large-scale vaccination drives. These efforts had been hobbled by logistical and different points that prevented jabs from making it into folks’s arms, leaving the continent with a glut of doses that’s ongoing at this time.
In consequence, the African Union and businesses like Covax haven’t positioned new orders in latest months with different producers both.
Dr. John Nkengasong, the outgoing head of the African Union’s Centres for Illness Management and Prevention, recalled a 2021 summit the place hundreds participated in a Zoom name to pledge to construct up Africa’s vaccine manufacturing.
Dr. Nkengasong, who mentioned he has been in talks with Aspen in addition to with African leaders to discover a resolution, described the shortage of orders as “very worrying,” including that it might discourage different African firms from creating their capability to fabricate Covid-19 vaccines.
“If these firms should not supported, the entire pronouncement and dedication that all of us made on the peak of this pandemic would actually not have been translated into info,” he mentioned.
John Eligon contributed reporting from Johannesburg and Lauren McCarthy contributed reporting from New York.
Provisional agreement aimed at ending fighting in eastern DRC expected to be formally signed on June 27.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda have signed a provisional agreement aimed at stopping the conflict in eastern DRC, according to a joint statement from the two countries and the United States Department of State.
The development late on Wednesday in Washington, DC, came after “three days of constructive dialogue regarding political, security, and economic interests”, the statement said.
The draft agreement contains provisions on issues including disarmament, the integration of non-state armed groups and the return of refugees and internally displaced people.
Eastern DRC has been riven by conflict for decades, with armed groups competing for access to natural resources. Fighting in the region escalated in January when the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group captured Goma, the mineral-rich area’s largest city. A few weeks later, the group seized the strategic town of Bukavu. Rwanda denies supporting the rebels.
Thousands of people have been killed in the region and hundreds of thousands of others displaced since the conflict intensified earlier this year.
Several of the parties to the conflict have been accused of carrying out human rights abuses.
In a report published in May, Amnesty International accused M23 of torturing and killing civilians.
“These acts violate international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes,” Amnesty said at the time.
On Monday, Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said that the rebels, DRC troops and allied armed groups had all carried out human rights abuses.
Turk called on all sides “to commit immediately to a ceasefire and resume negotiations, and to respect international humanitarian and human rights law”.
The US hopes to bring an end to the fighting and to unlock billions of dollars of Western investment in the eastern DRC, which has large mineral reserves including cobalt, copper, gold and lithium.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described the twin aims of peace and investment as a “win-win”.
As part of the diplomatic efforts, Massad Boulos, the US envoy to Africa, travelled to the DRC and Rwanda in April. During his visit, he urged Kigali to end its support for the M23 rebels.
Although the African countries have agreed to at least six truces since 2021, none has lasted.
Angola stepped down in March from its role as mediator, with the US and Qatar currently leading efforts to secure peace in the eastern DRC.
The draft agreement is due to be formally signed on June 27 by ministers from the DRC and Rwanda in the presence of Rubio.
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Star of the hit Netflix show “Jewish Matchmaking,” Cindy Seni isn’t single anymore, but still talks to renowned matchmaker Aleeza Ben Shalom and lives in Israel.
From serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during COVID to living in Jerusalem through Oct. 7 and now the launch of Operation Rising Lion, Seni has seen a slew of historic events firsthand.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Seni told Fox News Digital. “It feels like it’s a never-ending wound that we just keep trying to patch up and then it gets reopened again and it’s very, very difficult.”
Israel’s air defense targets Iranian missiles in the sky of Tel Aviv in Israel on June 16, 2025. (MATAN GOLAN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
CAITLYN JENNER, STUCK IN ISRAEL AFTER IRAN STRIKE, POSTS PICTURES OF CHAOS AND SHELTER
Since the operation in Iran began, Israel has directed civilians to stay in bomb shelters or protected spaces for longer periods of time. Seni says it can be “anxiety-inducing” as one never knows how long the shelter-in-place order will last.
“It’s a question sometimes of an entire night or a few hours,” she said. “And thank God I have a safe room in my apartment, but a lot of people don’t, so they have to run and literally go out on the street at night in the middle with their kids and that’s very stressful.”
While she said that life in Israel right now is anxiety-inducing and scary, Seni also spoke about the resilience of the Israeli people, something she admires about the culture. Seni told Fox News Digital that people in Israel are living their lives not because they aren’t afraid or stressed, but rather in spite of that because they don’t have a choice. As Seni said, “they can’t stop.”
One resilient Israeli who has had a major impact on Seni’s life amid the chaos of war and conflict is her husband, Eldad Cohen.
“He’s a very, very resilient Israeli. He’s been through a lot of things,” she said. “He was injured as well in the army, and he has his own kind of, you grew up here during the Second Intifada in Jerusalem, and so he has this own resilience that really grounds me.”
“Jewish Matchmaking” star Cindy Seni and her now-husband Eldad Cohen at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel. (@IsraelWithCindy/Instagram)
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Seni’s other love is spreading joy online through her Instagram account, “Israel with Cindy,” where she posts skits, photos and personal stories.
“So, ‘Israel with Cindy’ was really created as a way to spread joy within the community —the Jewish community — and it kind of really grew from there,” Seni said. “When situations like these happen, and the same thing with October 7th, I was faced with an extreme amount of hatred or just antisemitism. And I decided that my platform was going to be used in times of need to show antisemitism and expose hatred and trying to really find peace and a solution in the long-term. Humanizing Israelis, humanizing Jews, which I think is often lost in today’s society, sometimes in this polarized world.”
Rescue personnel work at an impact site following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Rishon LeZion, Israel, June 14, 2025. (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun )
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that as of Wednesday 24 people had been killed and more than 800 injured in Iran’s retaliatory strikes. Additionally, 3,800 people have been evacuated from their homes.
While the numbers may be daunting, Seni says she has faith in the Israeli security forces and in God.
“I’m a believer in God, so, I believe that we have divine protection. I think that, God willing, everything will be okay.”
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