Biovac has secured a $108.3 million financing package that will allow the South African pharma company to build the continent’s first end-to-end, multi-vaccine production plant.
The financial backing comes from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, and the European Commission in the form of a $20 million loan, plus a €75 million ($88.3 million) investment from EIB Group, the company said in an April 16 press release.
The latter tranche, dubbed a “quasi-equity” investment, is a form of long-term financing to provide flexible capital for growth while sharing risk, according to the release. It’s being provided under the Human Development Accelerator guarantee program backed by the European Commission and administered by the EIP Group in partnership with the Gates Foundation.
“Expanding local vaccine development and end-to-end manufacturing on African soil for global supply has always been Biovac’s vision, and this funding enables us to accelerate it,” Morena Makhoana, Biovac’s chief executive, said in the release. “The new facility will ensure a reliable supply of life-saving vaccines for Africa and expand our role in building skills, advancing technology transfer and driving vaccine innovation that will benefit generations to come.”
The project—located at Biovac’s Cape Town manufacturing site—is expected to be completed by 2028 and will churn out oral cholera vaccines. Eventually, the site will produce vaccines for polio, pneumonia and meningitis.
When fully operating, the facility will have the capacity to produce up to 40 million doses a year, the company said.
That would address roughly 40% of the global cholera vaccine supply gap and support regional markets served by UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, according to the release.
The project will also generate more than 340 skilled jobs and an estimated 7,000 indirect jobs.
Biovac inked a deal back in 2024 with Sanofi and EuBiologics to produce and distribute critical vaccines on the continent. The collaboration with Sanofi involved making inactivated polio vaccines.
That same year, Moderna withdrew its pledge to build a $500 million manufacturing facility in Kenya because it hadn’t received any vaccine orders from the African continent since 2022. Moderna’s decision was blasted by the African CDC, which said Moderna was shifting blame for its backpedal.