The new facility, expected to be completed in 2028, will initially manufacture oral cholera vaccines before expanding production to include inactivated polio vaccines (IPV), pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV), and meningitis (MenX) vaccines.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a loan of up to $15 million (around R250m) to South African-based vaccine manufacturer Biovac to support the construction of a new multi-vaccine manufacturing facility in Cape Town, a move expected to strengthen Africa's vaccine production capacity and reduce the continent's reliance on imports.
The AfDB joins a consortium of development finance institutions supporting the expansion.
The financing syndicate is led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and includes a long-term quasi-equity facility from the Human Development Accelerator (HDX) programme, an initiative backed by the European Union and implemented by the European Investment Bank in partnership with the Gates Foundation. Additional grant funding and technical support from global health partners will facilitate technology transfers to broaden Biovac's vaccine portfolio.
The financing, announced on Friday, forms part of a broader expansion programme that will increase Biovac's annual manufacturing capacity to 500 million vaccine doses, positioning the company as Africa's first end-to-end producer of oral cholera vaccines and South Africa's first local manufacturer of inactivated polio vaccines.
