There is growing pressure on countries across Africa to buy Covid-19 vaccines from South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare, the first company to produce the vaccines on the continent.
It follows warnings from the company that it may have to stop producing Covid vaccines.
The head of the continent’s leading public health body, the Africa CDC, is now urging Covax - the international scheme which many African states rely on for Covid vaccines - to buy from the plant.
Meanwhile South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa says he’s working with his counterparts in four African countries to try and save Aspen’s Covid vaccine production.
Aspen’s group senior executive told the BBC that Covax had not bought a single vaccine made in Africa.
While he welcomes President Ramaphosa’s efforts to increase orders from other countries on the continent, Stavros Nicolau told the BBC it’s not enough.
The head of the Africa CDC says that choosing to buy from Africa “is a political decision”.
John Nkengansong argued that production on the continent is key to the world’s health security.
Covax has said that it is "committed to diversifying global supply - specially in Africa".
But it argues that lack of demand means it is not in a position to buy large quantities of vaccines.
The deal which allowed Aspen to produce and sell Aspenovax was seen as an important step in helping to improve equal access to Covid vaccines.
Just 15% of adults in Africa were fully vaccinated in March, according to figures from the WHO - and there is growing concern about a decline in the number of people getting inoculated around the world
