Ramaphosa opens CSIR FuturePHARMA, saying Covid taught SA to make its own vaccines
The new Tshwane facility will be open to private companies and entrepreneurs as well as public researchers, the President said at its launch.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has launched the CSIR FuturePHARMA facility in Tshwane, describing it as a “game changing facility” that will strengthen South Africa’s ability to develop vaccines and medicines at home and to prepare for future pandemics.
Speaking to media after the launch at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research campus on Wednesday, the President said the Covid-19 pandemic had shown why the country needed its own pharmaceutical capability.
“This is a game changing facility. It’s going to enable us to be pandemic-ready whenever there are pandemics of any type, will be able to have a facility that is ready for the immediate research and development of all the capabilities that we will need to develop vaccines,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the country had drawn lessons from Covid-19, particularly about health sovereignty.
“We have learned a lot of lessons out of COVID-19. We learnt that we needed to have our own health sovereignty and that means we should not be relying on outside products.”
He recalled that South African scientists had been involved in vaccine development during the pandemic, but that the country’s ability to benefit fully from that work was constrained by existing contractual arrangements.
“We were developing vaccines, as I said, but they were being courted out of our country because they had contracts with the capabilities that we had here,” the President said.
FuturePHARMA is intended to change that by establishing a local platform for pharmaceutical development. According to the President, the facility will bring together the country’s existing scientific expertise with specialised infrastructure that can support pharmaceutical process development, scale-up technology transfer, and progression towards clinical and commercial pathways.
He named the two ministers who will lead the work. Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi will lead the medicines development process, while Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande will lead research, innovation and technological development.
“At the leadership level, we have the capabilities, and we have the scientists, researchers and innovators,” Ramaphosa said.
The facility will not be reserved for government and the public research system. Ramaphosa said FuturePHARMA will be open to private sector companies and entrepreneurs seeking to develop health products, under an open-access model intended to give innovators and businesses the use of specialised infrastructure and expertise that may otherwise be too costly to establish on their own.
“That’s why I say this is a game changing facility for our country,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the ambition extends beyond South Africa’s borders, with the facility to be made available to the rest of the continent.
“It puts us nearly on par with more developed economies and that’s where we are headed. However, we also make it available for Africa, our beloved continent,” he said.
The launch statement, published by SAnews (South African Government News Agency), is a summary of the President’s remarks at the event rather than a full transcript. It does not set out a budget for the facility, a construction or staffing timeline, or the terms on which private companies and entrepreneurs will be able to use it. The Enquirer has put those questions to the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation and the CSIR and will report their answers when they are received.
Source: SAnews (South African Government News Agency), President Ramaphosa hails FuturePHARMA as a game changer
