The project forms part of an expansion programme that will raise Biovac’s total annual manufacturing capacity to as much as 500 million doses.
Once completed, the facility is expected to make Biovac Africa’s first end-to-end producer of oral cholera vaccines and South Africa’s (SA) first local producer of inactivated polio vaccines. The project will also make Biovac the first producer of inactivated polio vaccines on the continent through technology-transfer partnerships with Sanofi, the International Vaccine Institute, Biological E Limited, EuBiologics and Bharat Biotech.
Africa currently imports more than 99% of vaccines used on the continent, despite carrying a large share of the global burden of vaccine-preventable diseases. The African Union has set a target for Africa to produce 60% of vaccines locally by 2040.
AfDB Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation Solomon Quaynor said the investment forms part of a wider push to strengthen Africa’s health security.
“This investment in Biovac is about much more than expanding vaccine production capacity. It is about building Africa’s health sovereignty, strengthening regional value chains, and creating industrial capabilities that will enable the continent to respond more effectively to future health emergencies,” Quaynor said.
Quaynor said the project would help shift Africa from dependence on imported vaccines towards local production. “By supporting Africa’s first end-to-end oral cholera vaccine manufacturing facility and the continent’s first local production of inactivated polio vaccine, we are helping transform Africa from a consumer of imported vaccines into a producer of critical health solutions,” Quaynor said.
Biovac Chief Executive Officer Morena Makhoana welcomed AfDB’s involvement. “We welcome the AfDB as a partner in this landmark project and are proud that an institution so central to Africa’s development sees in Biovac the same opportunity we see, a chance to fundamentally shift the continent’s relationship with its own health security,” Makhoana said.
Makhoana said the project would help change Africa’s vaccine production profile. “The project will shift the narrative from majority-imported vaccines to majority-exported vaccines,” Makhoana said.
The project is expected to create about 340 full-time jobs, with 43% expected to go to women and 30% to young people. Biovac, which already employs more than 300 staff, will also expand training in vaccine manufacturing, quality control and regulatory science.
AfDB Director General for Southern Africa and Country Manager for SA Kennedy Mbekeani said the project targets vaccines needed across the continent. “This project allows one of Africa’s most experienced manufacturers to scale up exactly where the need is greatest: vaccines that protect children from cholera, polio, pneumonia and meningitis,” Mbekeani said.
The new facility is expected to be completed by 2028 and will initially produce oral cholera vaccines before expanding to inactivated polio, pneumonia and meningitis vaccines.
AfDB joins a syndicate led by the International Finance Corporation, with support from the Human Development Accelerator programme, the European Investment Bank, the Gates Foundation and other global health partners.
–AfDB/ChannelAfrica–
