The Gates Foundation, alongside partners including the European Union and the German government, has supported the establishment of a laboratory in Cape Town that will allow The Biovac Institute to develop vaccines and other therapeutics for use in Africa, Bloomberg reported. The initiative comes as African nations remain heavily reliant on foreign suppliers for as much as 90% of their drugs and 99% of their vaccines, a vulnerability underscored during shortages in the Covid-19 pandemic and the mpox outbreak.
The new lab will enable Biovac to produce vaccines and drugs from early development through to full-scale manufacturing. The institute, which is partly owned by South Africa’s government, currently performs fill-and-finish formulations and distributes vaccines used in the country’s childhood immunization program. Morena Makhoana, Biovac’s CEO, said the facility will be flexible enough to work on a variety of pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, and parasites.
Early projects at the lab could include immunizations for malaria and respiratory syncytial virus, while a clinical trial for Biovac’s oral cholera vaccine is about to begin. “What we develop has to be relevant for the diseases here and relevant for commercial purposes,” Makhoana said. The initiative aligns with a 2020 commitment by the African Union Commission and Africa CDC to manufacture 60% of the vaccines used on the continent by 2040, marking a significant step toward self-sufficiency in healthcare and disease prevention across Africa.
