The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, the European Commission and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have announced financing to support Biovac in building what they describe as Africa’s first end-to-end multi-vaccine manufacturing facility in South Africa.
The package includes a €75 million quasi-equity investment from the EIB Group, with a further $20 million senior loan from the IFC and additional senior financing still being mobilised, the EIB announced on Thursday.
Quasi-equity is a form of long-term funding that sits between debt and equity and is designed to provide flexible capital.
The EIB said its financing is backed by a European Commission guarantee under the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+) through a programme called the Human Development Accelerator (HDX), which it said is implemented by the EIB Group in partnership with the Gates Foundation.
The facility is expected to be completed by 2028 and will initially produce an oral cholera vaccine, before expanding to include vaccines for polio, pneumonia and meningitis.
Once operational, it is expected to have the capacity to manufacture up to 30–40 million doses a year.
Jobs and supply
More than 340 skilled jobs and about 7,000 indirect jobs are expected to be created, according to the EIB.
Around 50% of the manufacturing equipment for the new facility will come from European suppliers.
The project is expected to address about 40% of the global cholera vaccine supply gap and supply regional markets through procurement channels including UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
“This will save lives: protecting millions of children from serious illnesses,” EIB President Nadia Calviño said in a statement.
The EU is using its HDX guarantee “to unlock private and multilateral investment” in the project, EU Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Síkela pointed out.
