(1)(a) Yes. The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development was informed of shortages of some vaccines (including AHS) by the National Animal Health Forum on 29 November 2021.
(b) The Minister engaged both entities i.e. the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and the Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) as well as Industry, including the Animal Health Forum and instructed that measures be put in place to ensure continuity in vaccine production and availability. The Minister further advised that there should be closer collaboration between the Agricultural Research Council’s Onderstepoort Veterinary Research and OBP. The Minister also engaged with industry as recently as 21 January 2022 where the OBP provided updates on vaccine availability.
2. Yes, the OBP has taken steps to prioritise AHS vaccine production. Over and above considering the possibility of public private partnerships for the development of vaccines, the OBP has undertaken the following:
(a)(i) Revision of production schedule (December 2021) to address urgent vaccine shortages
(ii) Development and implementation of a short term maintenance plan to attend to critical equipment impacting negatively on vaccine production (December 2021)
(b) Below are the time lines provided by the OBP on availability of the AHS vaccine since urgent steps were taken to address shortages:
(3)(a),(b)(i),(ii) While consideration is being given to this, there have not been any active discussions on a public-private partnership arrangement with any company on the production and sale of AHS vaccine. However, related to further studies on the virus itself, there are existing arrangement with other State Owned Enterprises like the Agricultural Research Council’s Onderstepoort Veterinary Research on research to enhance the effectiveness of the vaccine itself.
4. In exceptional circumstances, where there is no other product for the intended use, the Department may fast track the review of registration applications in terms of the Fertilizers, Farm Feeds, Agricultural Remedies and Stock Remedies Act, 1947 (Act No 36 of 1947). Where such products meet the requirement in terms of safety, efficacy and quality, registration may be granted within a short time frame. The details of speeding up the evaluations include the relevant industry making the request to speed up the evaluations, support of the need to make the vaccine available by the Director of Animal Health and consultations with potential manufactures of the that vaccine if available in the country and consideration by the Registrar of Fertilizers, Farm Feeds, Seeds and Remedies Act 36 to urgently deal with the evaluation.