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Siemens South Africa and Aspen to enhance vaccine production for Africa

Aspenovax will provide Africa its own COVID vaccine. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

In a joint project, Siemens South Africa, Aspen SA Operations (Pty) Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited and Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG) have entered into an agreement to enable the use of digital technologies

It will enhance the efficiency of COVID vaccine production on the African continent, through Aspen’s Gqeberha-based manufacturing facility. 

The project will strengthen the global competitiveness of the South African pharmaceutical industry and improve the continent’s resilience against other diseases and future pandemics. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has commissioned DEG to finance the establishment of home-grown vaccine manufacturing capacities. South Africa is the most advanced pharmaceutical market on the continent with Aspen being Africa’s leading pharmaceutical manufacturer.  

Sabine Dall’Omo, CEO for Siemens southern and eastern Africa, explained, “The full scope of supply is aimed at improving the efficiency, thereby reducing wastage of valuable vaccine doses while introducing energy management to minimise carbon emissions. We are proud to collaborate with Aspen and DEG in South Africa, thereby supporting the pharmaceutical industry to intensify the production of vaccines globally. This partnership between Aspen, DEG and Siemens clearly demonstrates how our digital technologies can benefit society. Ultimately, our collaboration will accelerate the development of vaccines thereby reducing time to market, while maintaining quality as we try to win the race against time to save lives.”  

Aspenovax will provide Africa its own COVID vaccine, produced on the African continent by Aspen for African patients. The production of Aspenovax, and consequently the continent, stands to benefit from the joint Siemens-Aspen project.   

This will include a suite of Siemens digital technologies to enhance the current manufacturing processes at Aspen and provide enhanced production execution, energy efficiency, product tracking, central management of the entire production network and introduce additional energy monitoring devices, flow instruments and temperature sensors. 

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