Business Insider SA reports that SA pharmaceutical company Aspen is on track to deliver the first batch of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines from its Gqeberha factory before June this year, the company confirmed this week.

“There have been no setbacks,” Aspen’s deputy CEO, Gus Attridge said, adding that the technical preparations for the start of manufacturing were proceeding according to plan. The factory will receive the coronavirus vaccine in frozen format from Janssen Pharmaceutica, the Belgium-based division of J&J which developed it. The finished vials will be packaged in special containers, at the correct temperature, before being returned to J&J, which will export it across the world. It is expected – although not yet confirmed – that the three million doses of J&J vaccine that SA expects to receive between April and June will come from the locally finished stock. Attridge said Aspen has been working with representatives from Jansen since last November and teams from the company have been in SA to monitor its progress. As many as 300 million doses of the vaccine could be packaged in SA.

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