Egypt’s Ministry of Health cooperates with Authority for Unified Procurement to export coronavirus vaccines to African countries

CAIRO – 17 June 2021: Egypt is planning to produce anti-Coronavirus vaccines to achieve sufficiency domestically and then export them to African countries, in cooperation with the Egyptian Authority for Unified Procurement.

The plan was announced during a meeting held between the Egyptian Minister of Health Hala Zayed with head of the authority Bahaa El-Din Zidan on Thursday.

The minister also reviewed the readiness of the Head of the Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA)’s factory in the 6th of October City, to produce Coronavirus vaccine (Sinovac) in Egypt, beside the company’s other factory in the Agouza area, Giza.

Egypt expected to produce the first batch of China’s Sinovac vaccine within the coming few days, according to Health Minister Hala Zayed.

She said previously to MBC Misr channel that the Sinovac vaccine will be provided to citizens within a maximum of 6 weeks, and nearly 40 million doses will be produced by the end of the year.

Zayed said that the Chinese manufacturing technology will be transferred to Egypt, stressing that the government has allocated LE 750 million to complete the vaccine production process.

The Health Minster affirmed that there is no difference between the Sinovac vaccine which was manufactured in Egypt and the Chinese-imported version.

Egypt plans to make Egypt a regional hub for producing the vaccine in Africa after meeting the local needs, as the VACSERA would be the main manufacturer to the Chinese Sinovac in Africa, Zayed said while receiving Chinese experts from Sinovac at VACSERA HQ.