South African-born billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong launches Africa’s first COVID-19 vaccine plant

NantSA, the operating subsidiary of NantWorks LLC, a multinational conglomerate led by South African billionaire businessman Patrick Soon-Shiong, has launched a plant in South Africa that will produce up to 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines yearly by 2025.

The plant, which is located in Cape Town, the second-largest city in South Africa, will be the first on the continent to produce COVID-19 vaccines from start to finish. The plant’s coming on stream will help Africa overturn its current status as the world’s least vaccinated continent.

The move aligns with Soon-Shiong’s plan to accelerate domestic pharmaceutical, biologic and vaccine production for patients across Africa.

According to France 24, the South African-born billionaire noted that the factory should churn out its first vials of second-generation COVID-19 vaccines “within the year” and produce 1 billion doses annually by 2025.

Production at the newly launched facility will be a collaborative effort between NantWorks, South African research institutions and four local universities.

The collaborative efforts will be coordinated through the Coalition to Accelerate Africa’s Access to Advanced Healthcare (The AAAH Coalition), which aims to strengthen the continent’s capacity to fight COVID-19 and future pandemics. Its mandate includes accelerating next-generation vaccines and innovative therapeutics manufactured in South Africa for all Africa.

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

The launch of the facility comes two months after another South African billionaire, Stephen Saad, signed a non-binding agreement with subsidiaries of U.S. drug behemoth Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in a deal that will see his firm, Aspen Pharmacare Holdings, produce and sell COVID-19 vaccines in Africa.

Saad is the founder of Aspen Pharmacare Holdings, Africa’s largest drug manufacturer.