<ul><li>South Africa&#8217;s Aspen facing poor demand for shots</li></ul>



<ul><li>Could slash production without orders</li></ul>



<ul><li>WHO, Gavi say supplies for COVAX initiative already secured</li></ul>



By Promit Mukherjee and Jennifer Rigby



JOHANNESBURG/LONDON, May 9 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;The World Health Organization (WHO) and its COVID-19 vaccine partner Gavi have no immediate plans to buy shots made by Aspen Pharmacare&nbsp;APNJ.J, the two bodies said, dealing a blow to Africa&#8217;s efforts to develop its own vaccine production capacity.



Aspen completed a deal in March to package, sell and distribute Johnson &amp; Johnson&#8217;s&nbsp;JNJ.N&nbsp;vaccine in what was lauded as a game-changing moment for an under-vaccinated continent frustrated by sluggish Western handouts.



But the South African company&#8217;s expectations of high demand in Africa, where just a sixth of adults are fully vaccinated, have not materialised. Its CEO warned last week it would be forced to re-purpose about half of its vaccine production capacity if orders did not pick up.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL3N2WU0ZX&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Africa&#8217;s top public health body, has called upon organisations procuring shots for the continent to prioritise sourcing from African producers.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WX4A6&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



However, COVAX &#8211; the global COVID-19 vaccine-sharing programme instrumental in Africa&#8217;s pandemic response &#8211; has no current plans to place orders with Aspen because of oversupply.



COVAX is backed by the WHO, the global vaccine alliance Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).



&#8220;In the case of Aspen, the current overall demand situation means we are currently not in a position to buy large quantities of vaccines,&#8221; a Gavi spokesperson said.



&#8220;However, we are in discussion to see if a collaboration would be feasible as part of expanding regional supply.&#8221;



Kate O&#8217;Brien, the WHO&#8217;s Director of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, said COVAX had already secured the 380 million vaccine doses required for the global programme for the second and third quarters of this year.



&#8220;COVAX &#8230; has more supply than is at present being demanded by countries, and that&#8217;s a good place to be in,&#8221; she told Reuters.



LOCAL PRODUCTION AT RISK?



As wealthy countries used their purchasing power to corner early supplies, Africa initially struggled to source COVID-19 shots, leading to calls for a boost to the continent&#8217;s vaccine production capacity.



The African Union&#8217;s goal is to produce 60% of all routine vaccines &#8211; covering everything from COVID to measles &#8211; administered in Africa locally by 2040, up from the current 1%, and several such plants are being set up.



The WHO and European Union are backing regional vaccine manufacturing initiatives. And South Africa, Senegal, Rwanda and Kenya are all seeking to establish vaccine production hubs.



Recently, however, acute shortages of COVID-19 vaccines have given way to a glut of doses as donations to COVAX and supplies from drugmakers have picked up and African governments&#8217; vaccination campaigns struggle to keep pace.



Aspen CEO Stephen Saad warned that the current lack of demand called into question the viability of local production, endangering Africa&#8217;s future vaccine security.



&#8220;There&#8217;s lives at stake here,&#8221; he told Reuters, adding that if Africa, and the rest of the world, didn&#8217;t support its capabilities the continent would remain at the back of the queue in the next pandemic.



Last year, the Biovac Institute, another South African vaccine producer, struck a deal with Pfizer&nbsp;PFE.N&nbsp;and BioNTech&nbsp;22UAy.DE&nbsp;to manufacture around 100 million doses a year of their COVID-19 vaccine for the African Union (AU). Production is due to start later this year.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL1N2OX0VN&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;The lack of demand is certainly worrisome to all,&#8221; Biovac Institute CEO Morena Makhoana said. &#8220;This emphasises why we need dedicated vaccine capability so that we have entities that can go through the ups and downs of the vaccine industry.&#8221;



Ayoade Alakija, co-chair of the AU-backed African Vaccine Delivery Alliance, said it was unfair to blame purchasing organisations for the demand shortfall.



African governments, she said, were now largely responsible for a glut of vaccines, having failed to establish successful mass vaccination campaigns and ensure their countries&#8217; ability to absorb vaccine supplies.



&#8220;African political leadership &#8230; seems to have jumped from &#8216;we have no vaccines&#8217; to manufacturing vaccines, and forgotten the two steps in between,&#8221; she said.



(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby in London, Promit Mukherjee in Johannesburg and Emma Farge in Geneva; Additional reporting by Wendell Roelf in Cape Town; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Josephine Mason and Kirsten Donovan)

A pack of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines is seen as the country receives its first batch of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines under COVAX scheme, at the international airtport of Accra, Ghana February 24, 2021. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko

WHO, Gavi not planning COVID vaccine buys from S.Africa’s Aspen

JOHANNESBURG, May 5 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Africa&#8217;s top public health body urged all those purchasing COVID-19 vaccines for the continent to place orders with South Africa&#8217;s Aspen Pharmacare&nbsp;APNJ.J, saying the market was key to developing vaccine manufacturing on the continent.



The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was doing everything it could behind the scenes to prevent a situation where Aspen closes its facility due to a lack of orders.



Aspen negotiated a licensing deal in November to package and sell Johnson &amp; Johnson&#8217;s&nbsp;JNJ.J&nbsp;COVID-19 vaccine and distribute it across Africa.



This was hailed as a game-changing moment for an under-vaccinated continent frustrated by sluggish Western handouts, but Aspen&#8217;s&nbsp;COVID-19 vaccine&nbsp;plant now risks shutting down after receiving not a single order, a company executive said on Saturday.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WT0CQ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;We have said from the very beginning of the conversation on local production that market, market, market is the key to ensuring that we have a thriving local production, manufacturing enterprise,&#8221; said Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, deputy director of the Africa CDC.



&#8220;Our message is that we need to have all those who are purchasing vaccines at the global level for African countries, they need to purchase those from African producers first,&#8221; he said at a regular media briefing.



(Reporting by James Macharia Chege and Estelle Shirbon)

Aspen_Place,_Durban_South_Africa

Africa CDC urges COVID-19 vaccine buyers to order from S.Africa’s Aspen

A South African market regulator said on Friday it was reviewing volatile share trading sparked by market speculation that a research group would release a negative report on a listed firm.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-43448 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/stock_market_wikipedia1.jpg" alt="South Africa's rand pares losses after dive in Asian trade" width="600" height="450" />
The regulator confirmed in an emailed response to questions it was reviewing unusual activity in shares of Aspen Pharmacare, which plunged 10 percent on Tuesday, prompting the company to say there was speculation that New York-based Viceroy Research would release damaging information about the company.
Aspen, whose shares have since recovered, said it had never been contacted by Viceroy.
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The Financial Services Board (FSB) was working with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to determine whether to open a formal investigation, FSB spokeswoman Tembisa Marele said.
“The specific mandate of the FSB in this area, according to the Financial Markets Act is to investigate cases of insider trading; price manipulation; and false reporting,” Marele said.
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Johannesburg Stock Exchange director of market regulation Shaun Davies said a review was underway and it was a market offence “to make false statements about listed securities” but added it was not clear if there had been any misconduct.
Speculation that Viceroy would publish damaging research on a company also hit real estate investment trusts, such as Resilient Reit, Fortress Reit, and Greenbay Properties.
The FSB said it had not decided whether to investigate movements in property stocks.
Viceroy, which describes itself on its website as “a group of individuals who see the world differently,” said it would not comment on the market speculation.
“Viceroy encourages people not to speculate on the identity of any companies we are researching and we advise caution in trading on gossip,” it said in an emailed response to questions.
 Executive Officer Mark Stevens said the market was “speculating wildly on unsolicited rumours” and it was business as usual at his firm.
Resilient CEO Desmond de Beer said recent movements in the firm’s share price “may emanate from an attack by a hedge fund short-selling the shares following a social media campaign.”
Resilient hasn’t been contacted by Viceroy, and welcomes the review by the regulators, particularly into aggressive short-selling of shares, he added.
There was no immediate comment from Greenbay.
Viceroy thrust itself into the spotlight after releasing a report detailing some of retail giant Steinhoff’s troubles in December, shortly after the resignation of its CEO Markus Jooste and its admission of accounting irregularities.
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Editing by Edmund Blair and Mark Potter
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South African regulator reviewing volatile share trading

EU antitrust regulators will investigate whether Aspen Pharmacare is charging excessive prices for five key cancer drugs in a move which could lead to a hefty fine for Africa&#8217;s largest generic drugmaker.
The European Commission said on Monday that it was looking into information that Aspen has imposed hefty and unjustified price increases of up to several hundred percent, and has withdrawn the drugs in some EU countries or threatened to do so in others.
Aspen acquired the medicines after their patent protection had expired. Its shares extended losses on news of the EU probe and were down 2.3 percent at 279.05 rand by 1020 GMT (6.20 a.m. ET).
The EU competition enforcer said the probe will focus on niche medicines containing the active pharmaceutical ingredients chlorambucil, melphalan, mercaptopurine, tioguanine and busulfan for treating cancer such as hematologic tumors.
&#8220;Companies should be rewarded for producing these pharmaceuticals to ensure that they keep making them into the future. But when the price of a drug suddenly goes up by several hundred percent, this is something the Commission may look at,&#8221; European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
The investigation will cover all of Europe except Italy, which hit the company with a five-million-euro fine in October last year for price hikes up to 1,500 percent for some key drugs.
The EU enforcer can fine companies up to 10 percent of their global turnover for breaching the bloc&#8217;s antitrust rules. It handed down multi-million euro penalties to a number of drugmakers in recent years for various offences.
Aspen, based in the South African city of Durban, has expanded overseas to benefit from the expiry of patents on best-selling drugs, fuelling a more than nine-fold increase in its share price since early 2008.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, editing by Louise Heavens)

Aspen under EU antitrust spotlight over excessive cancer drug prices

South African drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd reported a 6 percent rise in first-half profit on Thursday, helped by the results of a recently acquired portfolio of medicines from AstraZeneca.
Aspen, the biggest generic drugmaker in the southern hemisphere, said normalised headline earnings per share rose to 692 cents in the six months ended December 2016, from 656 cents a year earlier.
Headline EPS is the main profit measure in South Africa and strips out certain one-off items.
Aspen said the results were largely boosted by the $770 million acquisition of marketing rights to a portfolio of anaesthetics from AstraZeneca in September last year.
(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
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Aspen Pharmacare

WHO, Gavi not planning COVID vaccine buys from S.Africa’s Aspen

Africa CDC urges COVID-19 vaccine buyers to order from S.Africa’s Aspen

South African regulator reviewing volatile share trading

Aspen under EU antitrust spotlight over excessive cancer drug prices

South Africa’s Aspen posts 6 pct rise in H1 profit

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Aspen Pharmacare

WHO, Gavi not planning COVID vaccine buys from S.Africa’s Aspen

Africa CDC urges COVID-19 vaccine buyers to order from S.Africa’s Aspen

South African regulator reviewing volatile share trading

Aspen under EU antitrust spotlight over excessive cancer drug prices

South Africa’s Aspen posts 6 pct rise in H1 profit

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