Biovac, the South African biopharmaceutical company that supplies 80% of the country's routine childhood vaccines, secured more than $175 million in international financing to build a multi-vaccine manufacturing plant in Cape Town capable of producing 560 million doses a year — nearly four times its current output — according to statements published by the IFC and the European Investment Bank between 2022 and 2023.

The funding combines a $7 million rand-equivalent loan from the IFC — the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group, the largest global development institution focused on emerging markets — announced in December 2023 to support current production of vaccines against human papillomavirus, meningococcal disease, cholera, and pediatric diseases, and a €15 million non-reimbursable grant from the European Union, channeled through the European Investment Bank in June 2022 to finance feasibility studies and detailed design of the expanded facility, according to both institutions. The IFC also signed a project development agreement to provide technical advisory support for the plant's planning process.

"This collaboration epitomizes the type of support needed on the continent, to ensure focus not only on fill-finish capabilities and capacities, but also critically to advance research and development, drug substance, and ultimately to enable end-to-end manufacturing in Africa," said Craig Mitchell, Biovac's chief financial officer, in a statement published by the IFC in December 2023. Biovac has delivered more than 450 million vaccine doses since 2003 across South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, and three other countries in the southern African region.

The financing positions Biovac at the center of a continental push that carries real urgency. Africa consumes roughly 25% of the world's vaccines but manufactures less than 1%, according to Africa CDC data published in 2024. The Covid-19 pandemic put that gap on full display when African nations waited months at the back of the global queue for mRNA shots. The African Union responded with a formal commitment in 2022 to manufacture 60% of its vaccines locally by 2040 — a target that has since mobilized billions in pledges, including a $1.1 billion program launched by the European Commission in June 2024 to accelerate vaccine production across the continent.

Clinical croof

The most concrete signal of Biovac's progress came in November 2025, when the company launched Phase 1 clinical trials of its oral cholera vaccine at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, after receiving approval from SAHPRA, South Africa's health products regulatory authority, according to a statement from the South African Department of Science and Innovation published on November 10, 2025. The vaccine is the first developed entirely in Africa in more than 50 years — from initial bacterial strains through to finished product — with technology transferred in 2022 from the International Vaccine Institute, a Seoul-based nonprofit. The same week, Biovac opened a state-of-the-art product development laboratory at its Pinelands site in Cape Town, backed by approximately $15 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to Vijay Yabannavar, a senior Gates Foundation program officer, as quoted by Daily Maverick. The facility hosts mRNA drug substance infrastructure, a nanoparticle formulation suite, and dedicated bacterial and cell culture zones, enabling Biovac to develop multiple vaccine candidates simultaneously.

Phase 1 tests safety in a small adult cohort. If results hold, a Phase 3 study involving roughly 3,000 participants will follow across five South African sites — two in Johannesburg, two in Durban, one in East London — coordinated by the South African Medical Research Council, the country's primary public health research institution, according to the government statement. A successful outcome could yield approval for African use in 2028 and global clearance by 2028-2029. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a public-private partnership that supplies half the world's childhood vaccines, has put incentive mechanisms in place specifically for African-made vaccines, which positions Biovac as a frontrunner to capture regional procurement contracts.

The new multi-vaccine plant remains at the detailed design stage and requires Biovac to close the remainder of the $175 million envelope with South African and international commercial partners, according to the EIB. Infrastructure South Africa, the government agency tasked with mobilizing infrastructure investment, is working with the Western Cape province to unlock an additional 260 million rand in project support, according to the EIB statement from June 2022.

The next critical milestone is the Phase 1 trial data readout, expected during 2026. A clean safety signal would open the door to Phase 3, sharpen Biovac's commercial financing story, and mark the clearest test yet of whether Africa's most ambitious vaccine manufacturing bet is on track to deliver.

Idriss Linge