Following the opening of a state-of-the-art manufacturing complex, Africa aspires to become self-sufficient in vaccinations.
President, Cyril Ramaphosa remarked during the formal inauguration of NantSA’s manufacturing site in Brackengate, Cape Town, that “Africa is ready to embrace a new age of medical research.” NantSA is a subsidiary of NantWorks, a worldwide business located in the United States.
“Today is an example of how we go ahead as a continent to become self-reliant,” Ramaphosa said, adding that through becoming self-sufficient, “colonial chains are being destroyed.” The Africa’s Access to Advanced Healthcare (AAAH) Coalition was also launched at the event.
NantSA and the AAAH Coalition intend to boost pharmaceutical, biologic, and vaccine production on the continent.
NantSA, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the South African Medical Research Council signed an agreement in September to transfer manufacturing technology for Covid-19 and cancer vaccines, as well as next-generation cell-based immunotherapies.
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Partnership with colleges and healthcare facilities across Africa is expected to speed up the development of next-generation vaccinations for infectious diseases. Cancer, Covid-19, TB, and HIV are all addressed by these vaccines.
Founded by South African-born NantWorks founder Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, the NantAfrica, NantSA, and Nant Botswana companies aim to produce one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines in South Africa by 2025, according to the company’s mission statement.
He claimed that the facility “moves with pace” and is expected to produce a Covid-19 vaccine in the next year during Wednesday’s unveiling.
He said “that unless we have a vaccine to stop the virus from spreading, we won’t be able to stop this pandemic.” The Cape Town facility will work on vaccines for the next generation. Vaccines made at NantSA will be made to kill infected cells and stop the spread of Covid-19, unlike current vaccines that only target spike proteins.
Ramaphosa said the new vaccine-making campus was part of a bigger plan to “drive Africa into a new era of health science.”
That’s what he said: “It’s inside this building and across our continent,” he said. “We want to make sure that Africa doesn’t have to be last in line for pandemic vaccines.”
More than 500 million vaccine shots had been procured for the continent, according to Ramaphosa, but this was only nearly half of what Africa required to vaccinate 900 million people and meet the World Health Organization’s 70% objective (WHO).
By the end of December, most African nations had failed to meet the WHO’s aim of vaccination 40% of their people against Covid-19. Only approximately 9% of eligible persons on the continent were completely vaccinated at the start of 2022.
“We need more vaccine doses, better therapies, and we need to safeguard our continent’s people from future variations and pandemics,” Ramaphosa added.
Premier Alan Winde of the Western Cape said the new facility was good news for the province’s economy, which he said already had a thriving health technology sector that was “well-positioned to grow over the next decade.”
He also praised the job prospects that such a facility would bring to Cape Town.
Soon-Shiong estimates that the vaccine production venture will employ 400 to 600 people.
