AfDB invests US$15M in Biovac to advance African vaccine manufacturing sovereignty

SOUTH AFRICA—The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has finalised a loan of up to US$15 million to the Biologicals and Vaccines Institute of South Africa (Biovac) to support the construction of a multi-vaccine manufacturing facility in Cape Town.

The project is expected to significantly increase Africa’s capacity to produce vaccines locally and reduce reliance on imports.

The financing forms part of Biovac’s expansion programme, which aims to increase the company’s annual manufacturing capacity to as many as 500 million vaccine doses.

Once completed, the facility is expected to make Biovac Africa’s first end-to-end producer of oral cholera vaccines and South Africa’s first local manufacturer of inactivated polio vaccines (IPV).

The project will also enable Biovac to produce IPV through technology-transfer partnerships with Sanofi, the International Vaccine Institute, Biological E Limited, EuBiologics and Bharat Biotech.

For more than two decades, Biovac has served as South Africa’s primary vaccine supplier.

Strengthening Africa’s vaccine manufacturing capacity

Africa currently imports more than 99% of the vaccines it uses, despite carrying a disproportionate share of the global burden of vaccine-preventable diseases.

To address this gap, the African Union has set a target of producing 60% of the continent’s vaccines locally by 2040.

In addition to expanding vaccine production, the Biovac project is expected to create approximately 340 full-time jobs.

About 43% of these positions are projected to go to women, while 30% will be allocated to young people.

Biovac, which already employs more than 300 people, about half of whom are women, will also expand training programmes in vaccine manufacturing, quality control and regulatory science.

The programmes will be delivered in partnership with local universities and other regional training institutions.

“This investment in Biovac is about much more than expanding vaccine production capacity. It is about building Africa’s health sovereignty, strengthening regional value chains, and creating industrial capabilities that will enable the continent to respond more effectively to future health emergencies,” said Solomon Quaynor, AfDB Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation.

Facility to produce vaccines for major diseases

The new facility is expected to be completed by 2028.

It will initially manufacture oral cholera vaccines before expanding into IPV, pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) and MenX vaccines for meningitis.

The project is also designed to benefit from Africa’s emerging vaccine-financing mechanisms, including Gavi’s African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA).

The US$1.2 billion mechanism provides milestone payments to African vaccine manufacturers that achieve World Health Organization prequalification, as well as per-dose financial support for vaccines supplied through UNICEF tenders.

The AfDB is joining a group of development finance institutions supporting the project.

The syndicate is led by the International Finance Corporation and includes a long-term quasi-equity facility from the Human Development Accelerator programme, a European Union-backed initiative implemented by the European Investment Bank in partnership with the Gates Foundation.

The financing package will also receive grant funding and technical support from global health partners to facilitate technology transfers and expand Biovac’s vaccine portfolio.

“We welcome the African Development Bank as a partner in this landmark project,” said Biovac Chief Executive Officer Morena Makhoana.

“The project will shift the narrative from majority-imported vaccines to majority-exported vaccines.”

Established in 2003 through a partnership between Biovac and the South African government, Biovac is a Cape Town-based biopharmaceutical company focused on developing local vaccine manufacturing capacity.

It currently manufactures and supplies routine paediatric vaccines and has delivered more than 450 million vaccine doses across Southern Africa, including COVID-19 vaccines.