Gqeberha
South African port city in Eastern Cape, formerly Port Elizabeth.
Gqeberha, the Eastern Cape port city called Port Elizabeth until 23 February 2021, is where Aspen Pharmacare finished Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine from 2021, then received no African orders.
Last refreshed: 4 October 2026
Timeline for Gqeberha
Mentioned in: CEPI awards Minapharm US$16.5m for Ebola
Pandemics and BiosecurityBackground
Gqeberha is a port city in South Africa's Eastern Cape, in Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality. It was called Port Elizabeth until its new name was gazetted on 23 February 2021.
The city holds a cautionary place in African vaccine making. Aspen Pharmacare finished Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine there from 2021 and later won a licence to sell it in Africa under its own brand. In 2022 Aspen said it had received no orders, because donated doses had filled the market, and local capacity without guaranteed buyers stood idle.
That episode is the standing warning for new African vaccine plants. It hangs over the Cairo site where Egypt's Minapharm will make a Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine candidate with up to $16.5m from CEPI, awarded on 27 August 2026.
Gqeberha's idle line returns as warning
Gqeberha's vaccine plant came back into the argument on 27 August 2026, when CEPI put up to $16.5m behind a Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine from Egypt's Minapharm. The award is the first of CEPI's five Bundibugyo projects with an African manufacturer, and the trial it funds will run in Africa.
From 2021 Aspen Pharmacare's sterile line in Gqeberha finished Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, but by 2022 donated doses had met African demand and the plant had no orders. Gqeberha is therefore the outcome Minapharm's Cairo plant is measured against, with Moderna's rival Bundibugyo shot in human trials in Canada since 3 August 2026.