South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare will supply the first batch of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccine to the country from July 26, the drugmaker has said, according to Reuters.

It will be the first set of vaccines to be manufactured in the country from active pharmaceutical ingredients — substances used to make the final drug product — sourced from Europe, Aspen has said.

Africa's dependence on imports of Covid-19 vaccine has left it vulnerable to repeated waves of the coronavirus, raising demands for vaccine production facilities in the continent.

It has administered just 60 million vaccine doses in a population of 1.3 billion due to restrictions on shipments from vaccine producing nations.