AstraZeneca Country President to ET: Egypt receives 12.5M doses denying doubts of vaccine’s efficacy

CAIRO – 4 November 2021: AstraZeneca has delivered to date over 12.5 million doses to Egypt, and is constantly working with the government and its partners to increase that number to support Egypt’s vaccination campaign, Country President for Egypt, AstraZeneca Hatem Werdany told Egypt Today (ET).

Werdany added that AstraZeneca is committed to supplying the vaccine broadly and equitably around the world at no profit during the pandemic period. To date, more than 1.7 billion doses of the AstraZeneca Vaccine have been released for supply to over 170 countries around the world, and approximately two thirds have gone to low- and lower-middle-income countries. 

“From the 585 million individuals who had received at least one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine as of September 2021, COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca prevented over 105,000 deaths and over 620,000 hospitalizations worldwide,” he clarified.

Warnings of the efficacy of the vaccine

Regarding warnings doubting the efficacy of the vaccine, Werdany commented that data from Public Health England (PHE) shows that after approximately 5 months, two doses of the AstraZeneca Vaccine, given 12 weeks apart, continue to provide high levels of protection against severe COVID-19 outcomes (hospitalization and death), across all age groups.

He added that there was some evidence of waning protection in older adults in a high clinical risk group; however protection against hospitalisation was maintained for older adults not at clinical risk. The AstraZeneca Vaccine also remained 80% effective against preventing COVID-19 related deaths due to Delta across all age groups after 5 months.

Current clinical trials will continue to monitor participants for efficacy and safety over 12 months. 

AstraZeneca and the Egyptian market

“Egypt remains a key country of focus for us and we work closely with the local authorities to ensure uninterrupted access to innovative medication for patients. Our priorities are aligned with Egypt’s national agenda,” Country President for Egypt, AstraZeneca stated.

Werdany ensured that the company and the Egyptian government work hand-in-hand to tackle challenges within the healthcare sector, effectively playing their part in contributing to a robust healthcare ecosystem.

AstraZeneca prides itself for more than five decades of successful presence in Egypt with over 800 employees. We have a current capital investment of around $60 million and expected to increase by around 50% over the coming 3 years, according to Werdany.

The company is continuously increasing its footprint significantly over the years through local partnerships and various programs to serve Egyptian patients. It spent around $75 million in the past 3 years while striving to bring innovative solutions to patients, in addition to supporting the healthcare ecosystem; by supporting the Governments’ efforts in the infrastructure upgrades and the continuous medical education for healthcare professionals, he noted.

“With our focused efforts in terms of expansion, we are planning to spend in the coming 3 years around $120 million in bringing more innovation to the Egyptian market, as it continues to grow steadily while offering us great opportunities to capitalize on,” Werdany stated.

Egypt’s strategy to vaccinate its people

Country President for Egypt, AstraZeneca stated that the Egyptian government has put a lot of efforts over the past few months to scale up its vaccination rates and reach millions of people. The authorities have opened vaccination centers in a short period of time that have the capacity to vaccinate thousands of people per day and are constantly encouraging the population to register to receive their doses through various local initiatives. 

The fight against a global pandemic of this scale requires collaborative work and the company’s side is delighted to play its part in the acceleration of the mass vaccination campaign through the continuous delivery of its vaccine to protect Egyptians and help the country achieve its targets, he added, noting that his company is looking forward to further strengthening the successful partnership with the Government and its COVAX partners to increase the vaccination rate and allow a return to normal the soonest possible.

As per their operations in Egypt, Werdany stated that the company’s manufacturing plant in 6th October City has a production capacity of 900 million tablets per year across all the company’s brands, and we are looking forward to increasing the local production in the coming year.

Manufacturing in Egypt is part of AstraZeneca's commitment to support the local healthcare system and representative of its investment in the region, he stated.