NantWorks LLC, a company run by biotech entrepreneur and Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, has agreed to invest in a manufacturing complex in South Africa focused on vaccines.
South African-born biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks LLC has agreed to invest in a manufacturing plant and complex in the country’s Western Cape and aims to produce Covid-19 and cancer vaccines.
Soon-Shiong, who has a net worth of $11 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, was born in the South African coastal town of Gqeberha. He made his fortune after inventing cancer drug Abraxane in the U.S and has sold two firms for a combined $7.4 billion.U.S. pledges to double vaccine donations to boost global inoculation
The facility will be owned by NantAfrica, a newly created unit of NantWorks, with initial expenditure projected at 3 billion rand . While it won’t be seeking government money if it is to eventually start exporting vaccines, it will need government help in the form of tax incentives and “a reduction of red tape,” Soon-Shiong said.
The universities of Cape Town, Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch and KwaZulu-Natal will help set up centers of excellence that will treat infectious diseases including HIV and tuberculosis as well as cancers. Another initiative will enhance rapid genomic surveillance of and response to viral mutations occurring in Africa, the company said.
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