Aspen vows to make up for vaccine shortfall after 2 million doses discarded
Pharmaceutical giant Aspen has vowed to make up for South Africa's Covid-19 vaccine shortfall after millions were discarded last week.
This comes after the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it would discard about 60 million doses manufactured at a troubled Baltimore plant because of contamination.
This promoted SA health officials to follow suite, with some 2 million doses stored at Aspen's Gqeberha plant being deemed non-viable.
The loss of the doses dampened spirits about the country's vaccine drive.
Aspen senior executive Starvos Nicholaou admitted it was a major blow for the country.
"One dose destroyed is one dose too many because you know that one dose could save a life.
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"It was a disappointment. It was something completely out of our hands."
But he assured South Africans that government would be able to scale up very soon.
"We indicated yesterday that the deficit of 2 million doses we will be able to make up in the short term."
"What's important is how you deal with these setbacks ad I think we've dealt with the very well," Nicholaou added on Tuesday.
The country hopes to reach its ambitious target of 150 000 vaccine doses a day in the near future.
