Patrick Soon-Shiong, a South African-American businessman and CEO of NantSA, opened a new vaccine plant in Cape Town on Wednesday, intended to help his company make COVID-19 shots in the future and address the continent’s acute shortage of manufacturing facilities.
A global lack of access to life-saving vaccines has been exposed by the pandemic, especially in Africa, where just about 10% of the population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, compared to over half of the world’s population.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who attended the opening, said the plant will stop Africa from being the “last in line to access vaccines against pandemics.”
He said, “Africa should no longer go cap in hand to the Western world, begging and begging for vaccines.”
The medical doctor, who also runs NantWorks in California, will transfer materials and technology to scientists in South Africa, where they will also work on vaccines against cancer, TB and HIV.
The plant aims to produce 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses a year by 2025.
The first vaccines are expected to be produced later this year following the transfer of bioreactors he has stocked at his U.S. factories. He has pledged to provide scholarships worth 100 million rand ($6.5 million) to ensure a pipeline of skilled workers.
Soon-Shiong explained to Ramaphosa that South Africa now has the capability to build 21st century medicine by building its human capital.
The South African scientific community has been a leader in fighting the pandemic, alerting the world to both the Beta and Omicron variants of concern as soon as they were detected.
However, health experts have warned that obstacles such as electricity shortages and water shortages that hinder manufacturing must be dealt with before Africa can stop importing vaccines.
Several pharmaceutical firms, including Pfizer, and the World Health Organization have improved existing production lines or set up new manufacturing hubs to improve access to vaccines in poorer countries.
In South Africa, Aspen Pharmacare manufactures Johnson & Johnson’s COVID vaccine, while Biovac will begin manufacturing Pfizer’s shot in the coming months. Cape Town is also home to a WHO manufacturing center that is trying to copy Moderna’s COVID vaccine.
One of Soon-Shiong’s companies, ImmunityBio, is testing a coronavirus vaccine candidate in South Africa that involves priming the body’s T cells to kill the virus.