CAPE TOWN, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's leading biopharmaceutical company Biovac and the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) launched a new product development laboratory on Thursday to capacitate vaccine manufacturing in the country and across the continent.
The launch took place at the Biovac Institute in Pinelands, Cape Town, with partners and representatives from the European Union and members of the scientific community in attendance.
Biovac Chief Executive Officer Morena Makhoana said the cost of the project was more than 100 million rand (about 5.8 million U.S. dollars).
"This new laboratory is a product development laboratory. What that means is that we can develop our own vaccines here in the country instead of relying on external parties for the source of our vaccines. We can really develop multiple products out of these laboratories," he said.
According to him, the laboratory includes infrastructure for mRNA drug substance development, screening, evaluation, and manufacturing. "It will be able to cover vaccines against bacteria, vaccines against viruses, even parasites," Makhoana said.
Mmboneni Muofhe, DSTI deputy director general and Biovac board member, said the launch of the new laboratory is the single biggest step toward realizing the vision of South Africa manufacturing its own vaccines.
"The priority vaccines for us, we are a country that is dealing with a big problem of tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS, and of course, one of the biggest challenges in the African continent is malaria ... and of course, in time we are going to begin to look broadly at other diseases," said Muofhe.
Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Nomalungelo Gina noted that such innovations would lead to affordable vaccines for communities in South Africa.
"As Biovac plans to build a multi-vaccine manufacturing facility in South Africa, we'll have the capacity to produce about 500 million doses of vaccines per year," said Gina. ■