Johannesburg – Pharmaceutical company Johnson and Johnson is the first to apply for Covid-19 vaccine registration in South Africa.
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) on Monday gave an update on measures in place guiding the safe and effective rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in the country.
At least four coronavirus vaccine candidates are being evaluated in South Africa.
“We received one application, this was received on Thursday evening from J&J and we’ve started the review process,” said SAHPRA Chief Executive Officer Boitumelo Semete.
She explained that they’ve had discussions with other pharmaceutical companies that are looking to register their Covid-19 vaccine candidates with the regulatory body.
“We’ve had pre-submissions discussions with them where we advised them on what the data is that we would require as a regulator. So, we really hope that this process that we have outlined and published on our website gives the industry sufficient information in terms of what is expected.”
Semete said it was important to give the public the assurance that vaccines that would be rolled out in South Africa would comply with the principles of safety, quality and efficacy.
“It’s important that all of us as regulators really give our citizens the comfort and the confidence that whatever product that enters the market will be a quality product.”
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