Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel has officially opened multinational specialty pharmaceutical company Aspen’s general anaesthetics production line at its flagship manufacturing site in Gqeberha. This manufacturing capability will convert Aspen’s Gqeberha facility into one of the largest manufacturing hubs for general anaesthetic products in the world.
The use of general anaesthetics has increased since the outset of the pandemic, as they are needed to support COVID-19 patients on ventilators in intensive care units.
SA's Aspen Pharmacare is aiming to ramp up its Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity to 1.3-billion doses a year by February 2024, up from a current annual output of about 250-million doses, the company's CEO said on Monday.