State-backed vaccine manufacturer Biovac has signed a licensing and technology-transfer agreement with the International Vaccine Initiative (IVI), to manufacture an oral cholera vaccination, a move expected to boost its in-house capacity and bolster Africa’s health security.
The deal with the South Korean non-profit organisation comes as a surge in cholera outbreaks around the world has heightened awareness of a long-standing global constraint on the supply of vaccines.
Floods, earthquakes and wars have disrupted safe water supplies and led to deadly cholera outbreaks in countries such as Nigeria, Malawi, Haiti, Syria and Pakistan. The shortage is so acute that the World Health Organisation announced in October it would temporarily suspend the standard two-dose regimen for a single dose to enable more people to be vaccinated.
While Biovac’s cholera vaccines aren’t expected to bolster global supplies until late 2026, the deal is part of a response to the risks associated with Africa’s reliance on vaccine imports, sharply exposed during the coronavirus pandemic.
The continent’s lack of vaccine manufacturing capacity left its governments at the back of the queue when Covid-19 shots first became available. Africa manufactures just 1% of the vaccines it needs, and many governments depend on shots procured on their behalf by the Global Access to Vaccines Initiative (Gavi).
The deal with IVI is the latest in a string of announcements from Biovac, which attracted unprecedented interest during the pandemic. The organisation was established in 2003 to revive SA’s human vaccine manufacturing capacity, but limited funding meant progress had until recently been slow.
Increasing the dose
The pandemic saw Biovac contract with Pfizer to bottle as many as 100-million doses a year of its Covid-19 shot, and raise R2.3bn from a consortium of development finance institutions to expand output at its Cape Town facility more than ninefold to 1-billion doses a year. Before the pandemic, it was helping produce small volumes of childhood vaccine for Pfizer and Sanofi, and importing vaccines for SA’s routine childhood immunisation programme.
The deal with IVI is the first to include technology transfer for the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients, said Biovac CEO Morena Makhoana. Until now, Biovac has only formulated and filled vaccines.
The organisation aims to have commercial doses ready for export by the end of 2026, with production of at least 30-million doses a year, he said in an interview with Business Day. Makhoana declined to be drawn on the price of the cholera vaccine, saying only that it would be affordable.
“This initiative will be the beginning of end-to-end vaccine manufacture at Biovac, while addressing an ongoing and increasing cholera disease burden globally. In addition, this feeds into Biovac’s plan to scale up production capacity and will most likely be the first product to be manufactured in our new facility when it comes online,” he said.
The agreement with IVI is backed by R120m from the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) for the first phase of the project.
“Unfortunately, we are seeing now more than ever that it will be essential to have a robust and diverse supply of the vaccine to prevent death and disability from this persistent scourge,” said Trevor Mundel, president of BMGF’s global health programme. “We see this type of technology transfer to manufacturing partners as a key way to ensure a strong supply of high-quality, affordable vaccines."
kahnt@businesslive.co.za
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