South Africa’s Biovac Institute – based here in Cape Town – will become the first company in Africa to produce Pfizer’s COVID-19 jab.

Biovac won’t produce the jab from scratch, it will import the drug substance (the active ingredients) from Europe and “fill and finish” the vaccine in SA.

Production is expected to start early 2022.

At full operation, over 100 million vaccines will be produced for African Union member states, annually.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has welcomed the announcement:

Today’s agreement will contribute significantly to health security and sustainability on our continent, which currently has the least access to vaccination in the world.

— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) July 21, 2021