Yasmin Bilal
A new pharmaceutical development facility has been launched at the CSIR campus in Waterkloof, Tshwane.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said it would help strengthen South Africa’s health and industrial capabilities.
“This is truly a milestone in South Africa’s journey towards health sovereignty,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the FuturePHARMA facility demonstrated South Africa’s commitment to using science, technology and innovation to support sustainable development.
“The FuturePHARMA facility signals our resolve as South Africa to harness science, technology and innovation in pursuit of sustainable development,” he said.
“It signals our resolve to grow our industrial capabilities and to achieve meaningful health security and sovereignty,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the Covid 19 pandemic had exposed the vulnerabilities faced by countries that rely heavily on external sources for scientific, technological and manufacturing capabilities.
“The COVID-19 pandemic taught us many lessons, chiefly that developing economy countries need to strengthen local scientific, technological and manufacturing capabilities if they are to safeguard the health of their people,” he said.
He said FuturePHARMA was designed to bring together different parts of the pharmaceutical development process.
The facility links research, technology development, process development, clinical development, regulation, manufacturing, investment and procurement.
Ramaphosa said this would help create a stronger pathway between scientific research and commercial manufacturing.
He said FuturePHARMA would provide specialised infrastructure and expertise for pharmaceutical process development, scale up and technology transfer.
“It occupies an important space between laboratory research and commercial manufacturing,” he said.
The President said the facility should not be viewed as a conventional commercial pharmaceutical manufacturing operation.
“The facility should not be understood as a conventional commercial pharmaceutical manufacturing facility,” he said.
Its role, he said, was to provide shared capabilities that could otherwise be too specialised or expensive for individual researchers, universities and emerging companies to establish.
Ramaphosa said the facility could help promising innovations move beyond the laboratory and towards clinical, regulatory and commercial development.
“Too many promising innovations struggle to move from the laboratory into further development, commercial production and broader social application,” he said.
“That is the challenge FuturePHARMA has been established to help address,” he said.
He said partnerships would be central to making the facility successful.
“The success of FuturePHARMA will depend on the partnerships that are built around it: partnerships between Government, universities, research councils, industry, regulators, investors and other stakeholders,” he said.
He also called for stronger coordination between government departments involved in the pharmaceutical value chain.
These include the departments responsible for science and innovation, health, trade and industry, as well as National Treasury and regulatory institutions.
“Our strategies, investments and programmes must reinforce each other,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the emerging Pharmaceutical Roadmap, Vaccine Innovation and Manufacturing Strategy and other initiatives needed to connect research and technology development with national health priorities, industrial opportunities and market demand.
“We are building a connected system in which each institution and investment contributes to a common national objective,” he said.
The President said FuturePHARMA formed part of wider efforts to strengthen South Africa’s health innovation, pharmaceutical development and manufacturing capabilities.
He also highlighted the importance of existing manufacturers such as Biovac.
“Facilities such as FuturePHARMA and manufacturers such as Biovac should be complementary components of a broader value chain, with each contributing different capabilities,” he said.
Ramaphosa said South Africa’s ambitions extended beyond its borders.
He said the African Union and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had placed local manufacturing at the centre of the continent’s health security and sovereignty agenda.
“South Africa stands ready to use its strong research institutions, universities, regulatory capabilities and pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity to contribute to regional value chains and partnerships across Africa,” he said.
He said FuturePHARMA could support this ambition by creating opportunities for collaboration with researchers, institutions and companies across the continent.
Ramaphosa said the investment was about more than infrastructure.
“Through FuturePHARMA, South Africa is investing not only in infrastructure but in knowledge, innovation and industrial capability,” he said.
“We are investing in the partnerships, skills and institutions that will allow that infrastructure to create lasting value for the nation and the continent,” he said.
He also linked the facility to South Africa’s broader economic ambitions.
“To advance inclusive growth and create employment, we must create pathways through which ideas generated in our laboratories become technologies, enterprises, products and industries,” he said.
Ramaphosa said government was investing in strategic research infrastructure and human capability while working to strengthen links between research and industry.
He described FuturePHARMA as an example of what could be achieved through collaboration between government, academia and industry.
“This facility stands as a symbol of what can be achieved when Government, academia and industry come together in pursuit of a common purpose,” he said.
Ramaphosa congratulated the CSIR, its scientists and technical teams, along with the partners involved in establishing the facility.
He said he hoped FuturePHARMA would help turn South African research into technologies and products that create wider economic and social value.
“May this facility become a platform where South African knowledge is translated into technologies, where technologies become products, and where products create lasting social, industrial and economic value for South Africa and our continent,” he said.