Africa signs deal with Johnson & Johnson for 400m vaccine doses

All African Union Member States are to have access to 220 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, with the potential to order an additional 180 million doses.

Most of the supplies will be produced at the giant pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in South Africa operated by Aspen Pharma. The vaccines will be made available to African countries through the African Medical Supplies Platform, over a period of 18 months.

The transaction was made possible through the $2 billion facility approved by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), which also acted as Financial and Transaction Advisers, Guarantors, Installment Payment Advisers and Payment Agents.

Prior to the conclusion of the agreement with Johnson & Johnson, African Member States were asked to make pre-orders for the vaccines and many countries showed strong preference for this particular vaccine. The countries will be able to purchase the vaccines either using cash, or a facility from Afreximbank. Most countries have already completed their pre-orders.