US Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong Launches Covid-19 Vaccine Plant In Cape Town
US Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong Launches Covid-19 Vaccine Plant In Cape Town. It has been reported that South African-American Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong has launched a Covid-19 Vaccine Plant in Cape Town through his company NantWorks in collaboration with CSIR and the SAMRC.
NantSA, a division of NantWorks and The AAAH Coalition aims to accelerate domestic production of pharmaceuticals, biologics and vaccines that will reach patients across the African continent. The launch of The AAAH Coalition and NantSA’s vaccine manufacturing campus follows the announcement made by Dr Soon-Shiong on 23 September 2021 of an ambitious initiative to build capacity for advanced health care in Africa. “It has been a dream of mine, since I left the country as a young physician, to bring state-of-the-art, 21st century medical care to South Africa and to enable the country to serve as a scientific hub for the continent,” said Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, founder and CEO of NantWorks in a statement.
He continued to say, “There is such an unmet need to treat life-threatening infectious diseases such as AIDS, TB and now COVID-19. Of equal concern is the poor survival rate of patients suffering from cancer in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa. The astounding advances in science have enabled new paradigms of care involving activating the immune system and changing outcomes for these diseases. We are privileged to have the opportunity to bring 30 years of clinical, scientific and advanced biological know-how to the country and establish much needed capacity and self-sufficiency.”
Patrick Soon-Shiong is a South African-American transplant surgeon, billionaire businessman, bioscientist, and media proprietor. He is the inventor of the drug Abraxane, which became known for its efficacy against lung, breast, and pancreatic cancer. Soon-Shiong is the founder of NantWorks, a network of healthcare, biotech, and artificial intelligence startups.
