New vaccine manufacturing plant to be built in South Africa
The African Development Bank has provided a $15 million loan to the Biologics and Vaccines Institute of South Africa (Biovac) for the construction of a vaccine manufacturing plant in Cape Town. The construction of the new facility will be completed by 2028.
The commissioning of the new facility will increase Biovac's total annual production capacity to 500 million doses. Initially, an oral cholera vaccine will be produced here, followed by inactivated vaccines against polio, pneumococcal infection and meningitis.
Africa currently imports more than 99% of the vaccines it uses, despite accounting for a significant proportion of vaccine-preventable diseases. To change the current situation, the African Union has set a goal of producing 60% of the continent's vaccines locally by 2040.
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
