Africa’s First Covid-19 Vaccine Plant Opened in South Africa

On 19th January 2022, Patrick Soon-Shiong, a US biotech billionaire opened a plant in Cape Town which will be the first in Africa to produce Covid-19 vaccines.

This is the third Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing plant but the first in the continent to process vaccines from start to finish. Other facilities in the country have been producing vaccines from semi-finished batches.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Africa gets to produce less than one percent of the vaccines administered in the continent.

“Africa should no longer be the last in line to access vaccines against pandemics, Africans should no longer go cap in hand to the Western world begging and begging for vaccines. We will stand out on our own,” said South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa while speaking during the plant’s opening event.

Patrick Soon-Shiong was born in South Africa to Chinese parents but later moved to the US. He is the founder of NantWorks, a California-based startup in healthcare, biotech, and artificial intelligence.

“We have now developed the SN(spike nuclei), T-cell vaccine, a second-generation vaccine and we want to manufacture this in Africa, for Africa and export it to the world,” said Soon-Shiong.

The new plant will now work in collaboration with NantWorks, South Africa research institutions, and four local universities.