The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to bring supplies of Paxlovid antiviral COVID-19 pills to the continent, reported Bloomberg Quint.
“The memorandum of understanding is with the legal office at the AU [African Union]”, John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC, said while addressing an online media briefing on Thursday.
The announcement comes just days after Moderna signed a deal with Kenya to build its first mRNA facility. South African drugmaker Aspen has also signed an agreement to sell, package, and distribute Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
In October, Senegal and Rwanda signed an agreement with BioNTech for the construction of its first start-to-finish factories to make mRNA vaccines in Africa.
The Africa CDC director said African countries should be using a combination of public health measures, vaccines, testing, and other treatments in their efforts to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic this year.
“These molecules have a very unique role to play in a campaign to fight against this terrible pandemic,” he said.
Nkengasong expressed concern about countries with low vaccination rates, which include most African countries, saying people should not be complacent as the virus still posed a grave risk.
“Of course, the war going on in Ukraine has taken a lot of attention away from COVID, which is unfortunate because COVID has now killed close to six million people,” he said.
Notably, the African continent is the least vaccinated with just 13% of 1.2 billion Africans have received a full course of inoculations. With access to various Covid-19 pills, people can test and treat themselves at home, helping to ease the pressure on strained health systems.
Nkengasong said the Africa CDC also expects to hold talks with Merck & Co. this week about the supply of its Covid-19 pill.
