Africa-Press – Botswana. Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi inaugurated the Covid-19 vaccine factory. As reported by Xinhua on Monday (28/3/2022), Masisi and NantWorks Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Patrick Soon-Shiong held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to launch the construction of a vaccine manufacturing plant in Botswana.
“The NantBotswana Vaccine Manufacturing Plant will produce the Pula Corbevax vaccine against Covid-19 which was developed in partnership with the Texas Children’s Hospital Vaccine Development Center and Baylor School of Medicine,” Masisi said at the ceremony.
The Corbevax vaccine, approved by Botswana on Monday (28/3), is a patent-free protein subunit and Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccine is believed to be more accessible and could help low- and middle-income countries fight the pandemic.
Patrick Soon-Shiong stated that Corbevax has been safely administered to more than 10 million young Indians, and has been tested and found to be effective in all variants, including Omicron.
“This project is important for me personally, to be able to fulfill the promises made by the Government to Botswana, especially to push Botswana’s transformational development agenda from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy as embraced in our National Vision of 2036,” said Masisi.
The NantBotswana vaccine manufacturing plant is not only focused on tackling the challenges of Covid-19, but also other diseases that affect citizens such as cancer, he said.
Patrick Soon-Shiong is an African-South American transplant surgeon, billionaire entrepreneur and bioscientist. He is the founder of NantWorks, a network of healthcare, biotech, and artificial intelligence startups.
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