SA vaccine production ability gets major boost with new CT hub
President Cyril Ramaphosa, and South African-born health technologies billionaire, Doctor Patrick Soon-Shiong, have unveiled the vaccine manufacturing campus in Cape Town.
CAPE TOWN - South Africa's vaccine and medicine production capabilities have been given a boost with the launch of the NantSA biopharmaceutical production hub.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, and South African-born health technologies billionaire, Doctor Patrick Soon-Shiong, have unveiled the vaccine manufacturing campus in Cape Town.
#NantSA SAMRC CEO & President Professor Glenda Gray thanks South African-born Dr Soon-Shiong for making this collaboration possible. KB pic.twitter.com/cmYyb941oH
EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) January 19, 2022
#NantSA President Ramaphosa says the African continent has developed a comprehensive strategy to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. KB pic.twitter.com/Oa6PWndbvf
EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) January 19, 2022
Besides focusing on vaccine production, the 25,000 square meter manufacturing NantSA facility is also set to focus on producing other medicinal drug therapies for the country and the continent.
Soon-Shiong, founder of multinational conglomerate, NantWorks, has stressed the need for South Africa to become self-reliant in terms of local biopharmaceutical production.
President Ramaphosa said that this coalition would help Africa address its health challenges.
"Bit by bit those colonial chains are being broken. Today we have broken some of those links. We thank you very much son of South Africa, Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong," the president said.
The goal is to produce a billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the year 2025.
