Development finance institution the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has finalised a $15-million loan to biopharmaceutical company Biologicals and Vaccines Institute of South Africa (Biovac) to support a new multi-vaccine manufacturing facility in Cape Town that will significantly expand Africa’s domestic capacity to produce vaccines.

The expansion programme will increase Biovac’s total yearly manufacturing capacity to 500-million doses. Biovac’s new facility is expected to be completed by 2028 and will initially produce vaccines for cholera (oral) and subsequently for polio (IPV), pneumonia (PCV) and meningitis (MenX).

Once complete, Biovac is expected to become Africa’s first end-to-end producer of oral cholera vaccine and South Africa’s first locally produced inactivated polio vaccine.

This will also mean that Biovac will be the first on the continent to produce inactivated polio vaccine through technology-transfer partnerships with French pharmaceutical and healthcare company Sanofi, the International Vaccine Institute, Biological E Limited, EuBiologics and Bharat Biotech.

“This investment in Biovac 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,” says AfDB Group VP for private sector, infrastructure and industrialisation Solomon Quaynor.

“By supporting Africa’s first end-to-end oral cholera vaccine manufacturing facility and the continent’s first local production of inactivated polio vaccine, we are helping transform Africa from a consumer of imported vaccines into a producer of critical health solutions.”

The expansion project is also designed to plug directly into the continent's emerging vaccine-financing architecture, including World Health Organisation (WHO) vaccine alliance Gavi's African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, which is a $1.2-billion mechanism that rewards African manufacturers with milestone payments once they reach WHO prequalification, plus a per-dose top-up on vaccines supplied through the UN Children’s Fund tenders.

“This project allows one of Africa's most experienced manufacturers to scale up exactly where the need is greatest, namely vaccines that protect children from cholera, polio, pneumonia and meningitis,” says AfDB Group Southern Africa director-general and South Africa country manager Kennedy Mbekeani.

Additionally, the financing package is complemented by grant funding and support from other global health partners for technology transfers that will bring new vaccines into Biovac's portfolio.

Africa currently imports more than 99% of the vaccines it uses, while carrying a disproportionate share of the world's vaccine-preventable disease burden. In response, the African Union (AU) aims to produce 60% of the continent’s vaccines locally by 2040.

Biovac, which employs more than 300 staff – half of them women – will also expand training in vaccine manufacturing, quality control and regulatory science in partnership with local universities and other regional training institutions.

“This landmark project presents a chance to fundamentally shift the continent's relationship with its own health security. The project will shift the narrative from majority-imported vaccines to majority-exported vaccines,” says Biovac CEO Morena Makhoana.

Biovac was established in 2003 in partnership with the South African government to develop local vaccine manufacturing capability.

Based in Cape Town, it manufactures and supplies routine paediatric vaccines and has delivered more than 450-million vaccine doses to countries across Southern Africa, including Covid-19 vaccines.

Further, the AfDB Group’s support for Biovac aligns with its broader commitment to developing Africa’s pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing ecosystem, creating quality jobs, fostering innovation and advancing AU targets.

The AfDB is part of a syndicate of development finance institutions backing the project, led by the International Finance Corporation and supported by a long-term quasi-equity facility from the Human Development Accelerator programme, which is an EU-backed initiative implemented by the European Investment Bank in partnership with the Gates Foundation.