State-backed vaccine manufacturer Biovac has launched a new product development laboratory at its Cape Town facility, strengthening its capacity to produce shots from start to finish.
Biovac is SA’s key distributor of childhood vaccines and has, over the past two decades, gradually stepped up its manufacturing capacity, working back along the value chain from packaging to formulating and filling syringes.
It now plans to develop the active ingredients for novel vaccines at its new state-of-the-art facility in Pinelands, where scientists will conduct research and development on potential shots for disease-causing bacteria and viruses, said CEO Morena Makhoana.
“No other facilities in Africa have this capacity,’ he said in an interview with Business Day.
Makhoana declined to disclose the scale of the investment in the new facility, which is backed by the Gates Foundation. The lab represented a leap forward for vaccine innovation and manufacturing in Africa, said Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman.
“For millions of people across the continent, it brings the promise of faster, more reliable access to lifesaving vaccines, developed and produced in Africa, for Africa,” he said.
African vaccines
Biovac is among only a handful of vaccine manufacturers on the continent, which still relies on imports for 99% of its needs. Its push for end-to-end vaccine manufacturing capacity is part of a broader African endeavour to reduce the continent’s reliance on imports, an issue that gained new prominence after African nations were forced to the back of the queue when Covid-19 shots were in short supply. In 2022 the AU set a target of ensuring that 60% of vaccines used in Africa were manufactured on the continent by 2040.
Biovac’s new laboratory will enable multiple products to be developed at the same time. It will initially target diseases prevalent in Africa, said Makhoana.
“It gives us the capability to develop and test next-generation vaccines using the most advanced technology available, ensuring that Africa is not left behind in responding to current and future vaccine-preventable diseases,” he said.
Oral cholera vaccine
The facility includes infrastructure for mRNA drug substance development, screening, evaluation and manufacturing. It contains a specialised suite to formulate nanoparticles to encapsulate mRNA, along with dedicated areas for bacterial and cell culture, cell bank storage, and handling sensitive materials.
Biovac’s strategy is to develop vaccines used in routine immunisation programmes as well as those used to combat disease outbreaks, said Makhoana.
It is currently developing an oral cholera vaccine under an agreement with the non-profit International Vaccine Institute, and last year signed deals with multinational pharmaceutical giant Sanofi and South Korean firm EuBiologics to produce their shots for polio and meningitis. These deals built on its long-standing import and distribution agreement with the national health department for childhood vaccines, and a prior manufacturing agreement with Sanofi to make its six-in-one jab Hexaxim and Pfizer’s anti-pneumonia shot Prevnar.
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