By Neo Kolane
The minister of Health Semano Sekatle has ordered 1.1 million doses of Johnson and Johnson expected to arrive in July from Avant.
AVANT is a biopharmaceutical company that uses novel applications of immunology to prevent and treat diseases such as autoimmune, cardiovascular, cancer and inflammation.
Each of their products address large market opportunities for which current therapies are inadequate or non-existent.
The prime minister, Moeketsi Majoro said that the government has used its own resources to do a deposit with Avant, an AU initiative for acquiring vaccines but the private sector has come on board as well to pay towards the deposit.
“What we are seeing is an interesting progression from the little that the government put in which is 15 percent deposit and the private sector paying off some of that deposit,” he said.
Majoro revealed that from the Avant facility, they can acquire vaccines on credit but for as long as the government is participating in this whole cache and the private sector is also paying, an AU credit facility would not be necessary.
He continued to say “that this is very helpful because it is reducing indebtedness that Lesotho will otherwise have to control.” In a fight against the pandemic.
“We are very thankful for the initiative and we want to encourage others to continue to come on board and work with us towards paying for the vaccines. Lesotho has exhausted its 36, 000 doses from COVAX,” Majoro concluded.
