The Biovac Institute has retained a critical three-year contract to supply South Africa with Hexaxim, the six-in-one shot provided to babies and toddlers in the national childhood immunisation programme, reports Business Day.
Announced in the Department of Health’s next 36-month vaccine tender, the R5.3bn contract is crucial for Biovac’s stability, as it relies on the state for business. It had to retrench staff in 2023 after the department rejected its pneumonia vaccine in favour of cheaper imports from India.
While Biovac plans to export vaccines in the future, Hexaxim remains key in the short to medium term, said Biovac CEO Morena Makhoana.
Biovac has won three of the eight contracts in the R8bn vaccine tender, which begins on 1 January 2027. Apart from Hexaxim, Biovac also won the supply contracts for BCG, which protects babies against TB, and a combined measles and rubella vaccine.
The company imports and packages BCG and the measles-rubella vaccines, and provides the last step in the manufacturing process for Hexaxim under an agreement with Sanofi.
It is the only company with which Sanofi has completed a technology transfer agreement to enable it to fill and finish Hexaxim, which provides protection against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, polio and haemopilus influenza B.
Makhoana warned that the full value of the tender may not be realised because of ongoing concerns about declining immunisation coverage. Biovac had received orders from provincial health departments for about 4m doses of Hexaxim a year, far lower than the quantities anticipated in the tender currently in play, he said.
Documents for the current tender show the department expected to need 16.5m doses of Hexaxim for the three years to December 2026, equivalent to about 5.5m per year.
The government holds a 47.5% stake in Biovac – launched in 2003 to revitalise South Africa’s human vaccine manufacturing capacity. It is central to the government’s plans to boost Africa’s drive to slash reliance on imported pharmaceuticals.
To date, Biovac secured $128m in international development financing to expand manufacturing capacity at its Pinelands site, starting with end-to-end production of oral cholera vaccines.
Last week it said it expected to meet its investment target of $180m by the end of May.
The vaccines produced for export will be supplied to Unicef and the global vaccine-sharing mechanism Gavi, and are intended to be part of the push to improve Africa’s vaccine manufacturing capacity.
The South African subsidiary of Indian generic drug manufacturer Cipla won contracts to supply vaccines that offer protection against pneumonia, rotavirus and hepatitis B, worth a combined R1.1bn.
“This tender reaffirms our ongoing partnership with the state as part of Cipla’s mission to ensure access to quality, affordable healthcare,” said Cipla SA CEO Paul Miller.
The price of the pneumonia and hepatitis B vaccines it will provide from next year are broadly in line with those it currently supplies, but its rotavirus shot (R30) will be almost half the price per dose of the one currently provided by GlaxoSmithKline (R58).
GSK won two contracts, worth a combined R1.59bn, to supply shots against HPV and a combination shot against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Biovac urges investment in African vaccine-makers
Why Health Department chose Indian manufacturer over local producer
Oral cholera vaccine to be produced by SA’s Biovac
Pfizer invests R255m to strengthen South Africa’s health system through Biovac partnership