{"id":203035,"date":"2021-09-24T13:57:10","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T11:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/covid-19-cancer-vaccines-initiative-to-revolutionise-south-africas-healthcare\/"},"modified":"2021-09-24T13:57:10","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T11:57:10","slug":"covid-19-cancer-vaccines-initiative-to-revolutionise-south-africas-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/covid-19-cancer-vaccines-initiative-to-revolutionise-south-africas-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19, cancer vaccines initiative to revolutionise South Africa\u2019s healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sanews.gov.za\/sites\/default\/files\/2012\/images\/newsstorytemplate\/202109\/vaccines.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa has hailed a new COVID-19 and cancer vaccine initiative launched by world-renowned healthcare extraordinaire Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong as a game changer for South Africa&#8217;s healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative was launched by Dr Soon-Shiong\u2019s digital healthcare company NantWorks and is aimed at building pharmaceutical and vaccine capacity not only in South Africa but for the entire African continent.<\/p>\n<p>This will kickstart the transfer technology used in the manufacturing of COVID-19 and cancer vaccines and next-generation cell-based immunotherapies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe investment by NantWorks is most timely. For our fight against COVID-19, for infectious disease management, for cancer research and treatment, and for future pandemic preparedness,\u201d President Ramaphosa said.<\/p>\n<p>The initiative is a collaboration between NantWorks\u2019 African division NantAfrica, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC).<\/p>\n<p>Dr Soon-Shiong \u2013 who was born in South Africa but left the country during Apartheid \u2013 said the initiative is the realisation of a lifelong ambition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has been a dream of mine, since I left the country as a young physician, to bring state-of-the-art, 21st century medical care to South Africa and to enable the country to serve as a scientific hub for the continent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is such an unmet need to treat life-threatening infectious diseases such as AIDS, TB and now COVID-19. Of equal concern is the poor survival rate of patients suffering from cancer in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe astounding advances in science have enabled new paradigms of care involving activating the immune system and changing outcomes for these diseases,\u201d Dr Soon-Shiong said.<\/p>\n<p>The multi-layered collaboration will give rise to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The implementation of state-of-the-art biologics manufacturing capacity to expedite transfer of COVID-19 and cancer vaccine biologics between CSIR and NantAfrica.<\/li>\n<li>The launch of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI) with the help of the universities of Stellenbosch and KwaZulu Natal which will enhance rapid genomic surveillance of and response to viral mutations occurring in Africa.<\/li>\n<li>The launch of clinical centres of excellence for the treatment of cancers and infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, HIV\/AIDS and TB, with the help of Wits University and the universities of Stellenbosch and KwaZulu Natal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>President Ramaphosa highlighted that the initiative will boost the country\u2019s healthcare sector as the country battles the highest COVID-19 caseload in Africa, the largest number of people living with HIV and AIDS, and a \u201cmassive\u201d Tuberculosis problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do have current treatment programmes for all of these, but COVID-19 has brought new challenges, not least of all resource constraints. The setting up clinical centres of excellence will contribute to quality improvement in managing these other diseases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no doubt that this collaboration will place South Africa, and Africa as a whole at the cutting edge of healthcare, science, technology and innovation,\u201d President Ramaphosa said.<\/p>\n<p>The collaboration is the third investment into the country\u2019s pharmaceutical sector following the R10 billion investment into Aspen Pharmacare for the production of Africa\u2019s COVID-19 vaccines and the World Health Organisation\u2019s establishment of the mRNA manufacturing hub in the country. \u2013&nbsp;<strong>SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa has hailed a new COVID-19 and cancer vaccine initiative launched by world-renowned healthcare extraordinaire Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong as a game changer for South Africa&#8217;s healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. The initiative was launched by Dr Soon-Shiong\u2019s digital healthcare company NantWorks and is aimed at building pharmaceutical and vaccine capacity not only in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":203036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-203035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/covid-19-cancer-vaccines-initiative-to-revolutionise-south-africas-healthcare.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}