Global pharmaceutical company partners with Biovac Institute to produce potentially life-saving pneumonia vaccine Prevnar 13 for infants US PHARMACEUTICAL manufacturer Pfizer and the Biovac Institute (Biovac) on Tuesday signed a $20m technology transfer agreement for local production of Pfizer’s vaccine Prevnar 13, which protects children from severe pneumonia and related infections.It follows a similar deal struck by Biovac with pharmaceutical firm Sanofi 18 months ago for the local manufacture of its six-in-one childhood vaccine Hexaxim.The developments are significant because they take the government a step closer to realising its ambitions of restoring domestic vaccine manufacturing capacity, which ceased with the closure of the state vaccine institute in 2001. Biovac was launched in 2003 to revive this capacity, and has procured and distributed the vaccines used in the government’s childhood vaccination programme alongside its work to develop domestic manufacturing capacity.Bio...
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