GABORONE-Botswana's President, Dr. Mokgweetsi Masisi and founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NantWorks, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong performed a ribbon cutting ceremony to launch the construction of vaccine manufacturing plant in Botswana.
Speaking during the ceremony on March 28th,2022, President Masisi said the construction of clean rooms for a vaccine manufacturing plant serves as an important layer for achievement of national development imperatives.“The project is important to me personally, to be able to deliver on the promises that Government pledged to Batswana, particularly to drive the transformational development agenda of Botswana from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based one as espoused in our National Vision 2036,” Dr. Masisi said.
NantBotswana vaccine manufacturing plant he said was not only focused on addressing the COVID-19 challenges , but also other ailments affecting citizens such as cancer.
He releveled that NantBotswana will work hand-in-hand with the Botswana Baylor Children’s Clinic on the shared goal of building global pharmaceutical production capacity with the introduction of the PULA Corbevax vaccine.
For his part Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong applauded President Masisi for the visionary leadership adding that the decision to invest in Botswana which he said took less than six (6) months was due to the forward thinking leadership of President Masisi.
He said that their goal was to develop COVID-19 vaccines that kills the virus in the body to stop transmission and overcome every variants rather than the ones that only generate antibodies and block the virus and will be set up in Botswana.
Dr. Soon-Shiong further revelead that they aim to bring the Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority (BoMRA) standard to the equivalent of Food and Drug Administration (FDA), due to its potential.
Additionally, Dr Soon-Shiliong said they intend to pull water from the air and generate clean water and this he said will be deployed in Botswana in next three or four months under infrastructure pillar.
He donated 100 million doses of Pula Corbevax vaccine to Botswana. President Masisi was accompanied by His Honour the Vice President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane, cabinet ministers and senior government officials. (GOB)