South Africa to Speed Up Use of J&J Covid Vaccine, Offered Russian Shot

South Africa is in talks with Johnson & Johnson to buy an additional 20 million doses of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine and has been offered supplies of Russia’s Sputnik V shot, according to a presentation the health ministry made to the cabinet.

The document, which was seen by Bloomberg, also reveals that Cape Town-based financial services company Sygnia Ltd. was in talks with the Serum Institute of India Ltd. about developing a new vaccine, conducting a trial and securing 10 million doses of it for South Africa. The presentation was dated Jan. 28 and it couldn’t be confirmed whether any of the details have since changed.

South Africa has lagged in the global race to begin dispensing vaccines to avoid further deaths and economic disruption, and intended dispensing its first shots this month.

Those plans suffered a setback when the results of a small study released this week indicated the shots developed by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford has little impact on mild infections with a variant of the virus first identified in South Africa. It made no finding on how severe cases of the disease were impacted.

J&J last week said its single-shot vaccine prevented 57% of mild cases from the variant and all severe cases.

There is an “opportunity to access an additional 20 million doses” from J&J, the health department said in the presentation. The department is “awaiting J&J feedback.”

J&J said it is in “advanced discussions” with the South African government about potential additional collaborations to combat Covid-19 in the country and it hoped to be able to share more details in coming days.

“We are committed to addressing the needs of the most vulnerable and at-risk populations worldwide and to supporting further clinical understanding of the variants to help stop their spread,” the company said in an emailed response to questions. “We recognize the importance of ensuring that people in Africa have timely access to our vaccine. We have pledged to provide up to 500 million vaccine doses to lower-income countries, with delivery to begin in mid-2021.”

The health ministry and the National Treasury form part of an inter-ministerial committee that’s chaired by Deputy President David Mabuza, and is overseeing the vaccine rollout, said presidency spokesman Tyrone Seale. The details outlined in the presentation to cabinet will be taken into account, he said.

The Department of Health, Sygnia and the Serum Institute didn’t immediately respond to e-mailed questions.

The presentation also said Lamar International Ltd., a Cape Town-based pharmaceutical company, indicated the immediate availability of 15 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for South Africa. Pharma-Q, a South African company that makes pharmaceutical products under contract, said it could make 8 million shots available.

Lamar has spoken to South Africa’s health products regulator and did a preliminary presentation to it last week, according to its Chief Executive Office Jerome Smith and director Naz Gamieldien. While the possibility of reserving 15 million Sputnik doses for South Africa had been discussed, the offer would need approvals and wouldn’t stand indefinitely, they said.

Anand Mehta, Pharma Q’s managing director, said his company had offered the government 8 million Sputnik doses two weeks ago, but the situation was changing every day and authorization was needed before supplies could be secured.

South Africa has already agreed to buy 9 million doses of J&J’s vaccine at $10 each, the department said. Twenty million doses of a shot produced by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE have been secured for $10 a dose, the department said, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg.

Almost all the Pfizer shots will arrive in the second half of the year, with a maximum of 1 million doses available by the end of March. The 9 million J&J doses that have already been secured are expected to be delivered between June and January next year.

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