JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – China’s Sinovac Biotech is in talks about setting up a vaccine production facility in South Africa with its local partner, the chief executive of the partner said on Friday.
Numolux Group CEO Hilton Klein made the comments at the launch of the South African leg of a global Phase III trial of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine in children and adolescents.
“This clinical trial is a precursor to the establishment of a South African vaccine manufacturing facility partnered by Sinovac and Numolux Group that will cover the entire spectrum of vaccinations beyond just the COVID-19 response,” Klein told a news conference.
“We are in talks with Sinovac to set up a vaccine manufacturing facility. A phase one where we will do bottling and labelling, so that we can get vaccines out to the people of Africa as soon as possible,” he added.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Mark Potter)
