Ramaphosa, billionaire scientist Patrick Soon-Shiong open new Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing plant in Cape Town

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has opened a new vaccine manufacturing facility that he says will boost the country’s capacity to make its own inoculations for diseases including COVID-19.

The plant in Cape Town — a partnership between a U.S.-based biotechnology firm, the government and South African universities — will help improve Africa’s ability to produce vaccines, Ramaphosa said Wednesday.

“The pandemic has revealed the huge disparities that exist within and between countries in access to quality healthcare, medicines, diagnostics and vaccines,” said Ramaphosa. Africa is responding to COVID-19 with a “depth of scientific knowledge, expertise and capacity,” to make its own vaccines, he said.

The factory was also launched by Patrick Soon-Shiong, the South African-born founder of NantWorks, a multinational biotechnology firm based in the United States that has invested about $200 million to start the facility, according to local reports.

The new plant aims to reach a goal of producing