Johannesburg – Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, today, accompanied President Cyril Ramaphosa to the launch of the partnership to accelerate Africa’s Access to Advanced Healthcare (AAAH) coalition and the opening of the NantSA vaccine manufacturing campus at Brackengate, Cape Town.
The President was speaking at the new facility – dubbed NantSA – which was launched in collaboration with world-renowned technology healthcare scientist, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and his company NantWorks LLC.
The AAAH coalition with NantSA is designed to manufacture a billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by 2025.
It also intends to establish innovative manufacturing techniques to provide new treatments for life-threatening diseases including cancer, Covid-19, Tuberculosis (TB), and HIV/AIDs.
According to Premier Winde, the already established health-tech sector in the province is positioned to flourish over the next decade because of this investment by AAAH.
“AAAH’s major investment in Cape Town will boost investment into the Western Cape health-tech industry by approximately R1billion and create jobs. This is critical as we focus on the second pandemic of unemployment, by creating the jobs we need to recover,” he said.
The Premier finds inspiration in the role Cape Town has to play throughout the vaccination programme in ensuring that access to life-saving vaccines is achieved across the African continent.
“I am also excited about what this means for our established health technology sector in the province,” he said.
In 2019, the health-tech sector in Western Cape generated nearly one billion rand (R912.3 million) in medical devices and pharmaceutical exports.
Between 2015 to 2019, pharmaceutical exports saw a year-on-year increase.
Nationally, the pharmaceutical and medical devices markets were at an estimated R62.7 billion and R19.7 billion respectively in 2020 and were expected to grow to R90.4 billion and R29.6 billion respectively by 2025.
“If we leverage this clear competitive advantage, we can become global leaders in this space and ensure, that right here at the southern tip of Africa, we play a leading role in the fight against the major health challenges of our time,” the Premier noted in a statement.
“I want to especially thank and recognise Dr. Soon-Shiong today for his pioneering contribution to our region. Our investment teams stand ready to assist you as you execute this amazing project so that we not only save lives but also create jobs, in our country and on our continent,” he concluded.
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