FRANKFURT: Covid-19 vaccine makers BioNTech and Pfizer on Wednesday said they had found a South African partner to produce their jab locally, the first such deal on the African continent.
The move comes amid growing criticism of vaccine inequality that has seen poor countries fall behind richer ones in the race to protect people from the coronavirus.
Under the agreement, Cape Town-based Biovac will complete the last step in the manufacturing process of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, known as “fill and finish,” the companies said in a statement.
The project will take time to get off the ground however, with the first African-finished vaccines not expected before 2022.
Once up and running, Biovac is set to churn out more than 100 million doses annually that will be distributed to the 55 countries in the African Union.
“This is a critical step forward in strengthening sustainable access to a vaccine in the fight against this tragic, worldwide pandemic,” said Biovac chief executive officer Morena Makhoana.
The “technical transfer, on-site development and equipment installation activities will begin immediately,” the statement added.
The coronavirus vaccine developed by BioNTech and its US partner Pfizer, based on mRNA technology, was the first to be approved in the West late last year.
Studies have shown it is highly effective against Covid-19, including against newer and more contagious virus variants.
With the vaccine rollouts well under way in the West, and supply even outstripping demand in some countries, calls have grown for pharma companies to waive patents on their life-saving jabs.
This has been fiercely opposed by the companies themselves and countries like Germany, whose Chancellor Angela Merkel says suspending intellectual property rights could stifle innovation and would not resolve the lack of manufacturing capacity in the short term.
She has instead argued for licensing agreements and partnerships between vaccine makers and local firms, an approach taken by BioNTech, a German company.
“We aim to enable people on all continents to manufacture and distribute our vaccine while ensuring the quality of the manufacturing process and the doses,” said Ugur Sahin, BioNTech’s co-founder and CEO.
Pfizer/BioNTech said they have so far shipped more than one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to more than 100 countries or territories, including through the global Covax vaccine-sharing program.
The Covax scheme, backed by the World Health Organization and heavily relied on by African countries, has delivered far fewer doses than expected so far however.
The WHO estimated earlier this month that only two percent of the African population, around 16 million people, were fully vaccinated.
South Africa has the highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in Africa, recording more than 2.3 million infections and over 67,000 deaths.
The country is currently battling a brutal third wave of the pandemic, fueled by a lack of vaccines, public fatigue with Covid restrictions and the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last month announced a plan to turn his country into an mRNA vaccine hub, saying Africans “cannot continue to rely on vaccines that are made outside of Africa because they never come.”
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Pfizer/BioNTech to produce Covid-19 vaccine in S.Africa
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Pfizer/BioNTech to produce Covid-19 vaccine in S.Africa
- The first African-finished vaccines is not expected before 2022 however
Crash course: Vietnam’s crypto boom goes bust
HANOI: As a first-year computer science student in Hanoi, Hoang Le started trading crypto from his university dorm room, egged on by his gamer friends who were making a killing.
At one point his digital holdings swelled to $200,000 — around 50 times the average annual income in Vietnam.
But they crashed to zero when the bottom fell out of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in recent months.
Getting wiped out “hurt a lot,” he told AFP, but he also learned a valuable lesson: he has come to think of the losses as “tuition fees.”
“When profits were high, everyone became greedy,” said Le, now 23, adding that “it was too good to be true.”
Unlike neighboring China which has banned cryptocurrencies outright, communist Vietnam has allowed blockchain technology to develop in a legal grey area — barring its use for payments but letting people speculate unimpeded.
As a result the young-and-upwardly mobile country of 100 million has been at the forefront of crypto adoption, with an estimated 17 million people owning digital assets.
Only India, the United States and Pakistan have seen more widespread usage, according to a 2025 ranking by the consultancy Chainalysis.
But what once looked like first-mover advantage increasingly looks like a liability as investors stare down a crypto winter.
The price of bitcoin has almost halved since hitting a record high above $126,000 in October, and other digital tokens have slid even further.
Vietnamese crypto startups hawking everything from NFTs to blockchain-based lending and trading services have been hammered, with bankruptcies and layoffs roiling the industry.
$100 billion market
“Many companies have shut down because of this crisis,” said Tran Xuan Tien, head of Ho Chi Minh City’s blockchain association.
He added that others are “downsizing and conserving capital to extend their runway.”
Nguyen The Vinh, co-founder of blockchain firm Ninety Eight, told AFP his company has laid off nearly one-third of its staff since last year.
There was more “restructuring” to come, he added, given the gloomy outlook.
“The market will likely remain difficult for years, not just months, so we need backup plans.”
Until recently, Vietnam’s crypto scene was a wild west, with highly speculative ventures and outright Ponzi schemes flourishing alongside startups offering legitimate products.
The government warned about the dangers of crypto and broke up several huge scam operations, including one that allegedly swindled nearly $400 million from thousands of investors.
But it did not move to crush the industry as Beijing did, instead opening “a window for domestic businesses to experiment,” according to Tien.
Under top leader To Lam, who has pursued sweeping growth-oriented reforms, Vietnam has formally embraced the blockchain industry and is gradually asserting control over the estimated $100 billion market.
Last year it passed a law recognizing digital currencies, bringing them under a regulatory framework for the first time.
It came into effect last month but investors have questions about how it will be implemented.
Hanoi has also announced a five-year crypto trading pilot program, which will allow Vietnamese firms to issue digital assets.
But lingering regulatory ambiguity has kept many firms based in the country from formally registering there, opting instead to file paperwork in places such as Singapore and Dubai.
‘Downhill badly’
Vinh says some firms are folding and others downsizing or pivoting because of both the “prolonged downturn and an unclear legal framework.”
And new entities are struggling to gain traction as investor sentiment sours.
Huu, 24, said fundraising for his crypto-product startup has suddenly become much harder, and asked that only his first name be used for fear of hurting his business.
Foreign investors were once enticed by promises of 400 and 500 percent returns, he said, but were now discovering they “might lose everything.”
“Over the past few months, things have gone downhill badly.”
Founders including Huu and Vinh said the current downturn is part of a natural business cycle, and stronger firms would eventually emerge offering better products.
But that is cold comfort for the nearly 55 percent of individual Vietnamese crypto investors who according to one market analysis reported losses last year.
“In Vietnam, a lot of people trade crypto,” Huu said.
“When prices fall, people complain about losses and the overall mood becomes very gloomy.”
At one point his digital holdings swelled to $200,000 — around 50 times the average annual income in Vietnam.
But they crashed to zero when the bottom fell out of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in recent months.
Getting wiped out “hurt a lot,” he told AFP, but he also learned a valuable lesson: he has come to think of the losses as “tuition fees.”
“When profits were high, everyone became greedy,” said Le, now 23, adding that “it was too good to be true.”
Unlike neighboring China which has banned cryptocurrencies outright, communist Vietnam has allowed blockchain technology to develop in a legal grey area — barring its use for payments but letting people speculate unimpeded.
As a result the young-and-upwardly mobile country of 100 million has been at the forefront of crypto adoption, with an estimated 17 million people owning digital assets.
Only India, the United States and Pakistan have seen more widespread usage, according to a 2025 ranking by the consultancy Chainalysis.
But what once looked like first-mover advantage increasingly looks like a liability as investors stare down a crypto winter.
The price of bitcoin has almost halved since hitting a record high above $126,000 in October, and other digital tokens have slid even further.
Vietnamese crypto startups hawking everything from NFTs to blockchain-based lending and trading services have been hammered, with bankruptcies and layoffs roiling the industry.
$100 billion market
“Many companies have shut down because of this crisis,” said Tran Xuan Tien, head of Ho Chi Minh City’s blockchain association.
He added that others are “downsizing and conserving capital to extend their runway.”
Nguyen The Vinh, co-founder of blockchain firm Ninety Eight, told AFP his company has laid off nearly one-third of its staff since last year.
There was more “restructuring” to come, he added, given the gloomy outlook.
“The market will likely remain difficult for years, not just months, so we need backup plans.”
Until recently, Vietnam’s crypto scene was a wild west, with highly speculative ventures and outright Ponzi schemes flourishing alongside startups offering legitimate products.
The government warned about the dangers of crypto and broke up several huge scam operations, including one that allegedly swindled nearly $400 million from thousands of investors.
But it did not move to crush the industry as Beijing did, instead opening “a window for domestic businesses to experiment,” according to Tien.
Under top leader To Lam, who has pursued sweeping growth-oriented reforms, Vietnam has formally embraced the blockchain industry and is gradually asserting control over the estimated $100 billion market.
Last year it passed a law recognizing digital currencies, bringing them under a regulatory framework for the first time.
It came into effect last month but investors have questions about how it will be implemented.
Hanoi has also announced a five-year crypto trading pilot program, which will allow Vietnamese firms to issue digital assets.
But lingering regulatory ambiguity has kept many firms based in the country from formally registering there, opting instead to file paperwork in places such as Singapore and Dubai.
‘Downhill badly’
Vinh says some firms are folding and others downsizing or pivoting because of both the “prolonged downturn and an unclear legal framework.”
And new entities are struggling to gain traction as investor sentiment sours.
Huu, 24, said fundraising for his crypto-product startup has suddenly become much harder, and asked that only his first name be used for fear of hurting his business.
Foreign investors were once enticed by promises of 400 and 500 percent returns, he said, but were now discovering they “might lose everything.”
“Over the past few months, things have gone downhill badly.”
Founders including Huu and Vinh said the current downturn is part of a natural business cycle, and stronger firms would eventually emerge offering better products.
But that is cold comfort for the nearly 55 percent of individual Vietnamese crypto investors who according to one market analysis reported losses last year.
“In Vietnam, a lot of people trade crypto,” Huu said.
“When prices fall, people complain about losses and the overall mood becomes very gloomy.”
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