Covid-19: billionaire wants to help South Africa in vaccine production
Former US-based surgeon and billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong made his fortune in biotech (illustrative image) Getty Images via AFP - ALBERTO E. RODRIGUEZ
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The South African president fears the creation of a form of "vaccine apartheid".
According to the WHO, less than 2% of the doses administered worldwide were on the African continent.
South Africa is also at the origin of the request to the WTO to demand the lifting of patents on vaccines.
And to go further, a billionaire from the country announced this week that he wanted to help him become a leader in production.
Publicity
Read more
With our correspondent in Johannesburg,
Claire Bargelès
According to experts, a possible lifting of vaccine patents will not be enough to facilitate the creation of production units.
It will also be necessary to develop knowledge and technologies and this is what billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong hopes to achieve, in his native country, South Africa, thanks to a pledge of aid of 170 million euros. .
The former surgeon based in the United States, and who made his fortune in biotechnology, believes that his country of origin has "
the science, the human capital, the capacities and the desire
" to carry vaccine innovations on the continent .
Patrick Soon-Shiong wishes to go further than the vaccines currently on the market: he would like to see South Africa one day produce second-generation vaccines from A to Z, more effective against variants and in particular the one currently being developed. his company, ImmunityBio, which signed an agreement with the South African institute Biovac.
So far, only the Aspen plant produces vaccines in the country, assembling the components of the Johnson & Johnson company.
South Africa also fears the arrival of a third wave, while the number of positive cases starts to rise again and flirts with the mark of 3,000 positive tests daily.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
South Africa
Vaccines
Coronavirus