Aspen group CEO Stephen Saad, said: “Aspen has a clear objective and focus to capacitate Africa and give quality affordable access to critical medicines from sites based in Africa that are also capable of exporting to global markets. File: Bloomberg
Aspen Pharmacare has been contracted by the global manufacturer of human insulin, Novo Nordisk, to produce 16 million vials of insulin next year.
Novo Nordisk said yesterday that it had contracted Aspen Pharmacare to produce human insulin on its behalf in South Africa for export to African countries through a low-cost government tender system.
According to Novo, the deal marks its "expanded commitment" to improving access to life-saving insulin for people living with diabetes in Africa.
Novo said the amount that Aspen would produce next year under the contract equates to the yearly consumption of 1.1 million people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
In terms of the contract, Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited and its wholly-owned South African subsidiary, Aspen SA Operations have agreed with Novo Nordisk, to the technical transfer and commercial manufacture of human insulin.
"The collaboration allows for local production of Human Insulin in South Africa, to cater to the needs of people with diabetes on the African continent. Through the local conversion of the insulin into finished dose form vials by Aspen, the companies will leverage opportunities together, to ensure a reliable supply of products to populations that need it," Aspen said.
According to Aspen, the collaboration aims to supply more than 1 million patients (16 million vials) in 2024 with further upscaling to more than 4 million patients in 2026.
"Aspen will manufacture these vials at its existing sterile facility in Gqeberha, South Africa. The Group invested R6 billion in building these facilities and related technologies. The production of insulin will utilize the sterile infrastructure including some utilized for Covid-19 vaccine production.
"Aspen will deploy approximately 250 people for this production which is due to commence at the beginning of 2024. The collaboration will also reduce the transport-related carbon footprint by 68%," it said.
Aspen group CEO Stephen Saad, said: “Aspen has a clear objective and focus to capacitate Africa and give quality affordable access to critical medicines from sites based in Africa that are also capable of exporting to global markets.
"We are proud to be associated and working with Novo Nordisk, a global leader in many areas including diabetic insulins. We hope to build off this initial foundation with Novo Nordisk to further expand access.
"In addition, this development is important to retaining critical skills and developing new talent on the continent and to diversifying global supply chains to ensure security of supply and improved patient access," Saad said.
He said to this end, the technical and skills transfer agreement was key and an endorsement of Africa’s role in the regional and global pharmaceutical supply chain.
"We thank Novo Nordisk for this demonstration of their confidence in Aspen, together we can positively impact the millions of patients most in need," Saad said.
Aspen Pharmacare Group Senior Executive responsible for Strategic Trade Development Stavros Nicolaou said: "I'm going to stress that the first thing everyone associates pandemics with is infectious diseases like HIV, Covid, TB and all of that.
"But the more sinister pandemics are actually the silent ones, like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and the dynamics have changed quite dramatically in South Africa and Africa. For example, we've got 60% of our population obese in our country," he said.
According to Stavros Nicolaou, a limited number of people in the African continent are accessing insulin, which is the main treatment for diabetes.
"What does this deal will do is it will significantly change the landscape because we're going to be producing insulin on the continent, but it will also increase access to insulin.
"It's excellent news because to make insulin is another feather in our cap. It's a high demand product, people are going to get access, and, it further strengthens the credentials of Aspen and Africa to be able to produce insulin," he said.
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