On Jan. 19, 2022, South African-born U.S. biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong launched a vaccine manufacturing plant in the country of his birth, aimed at producing “second generation” vaccines to address COVID-19 and other diseases.

Soon-Shiong, who has made his fortune from developing successful cancer treatments, has committed an initial $195 million to NantSA – the South African operation that aims to produce one billion vaccine doses a year by 2025.

Soon-Shiong said that he had been moved to invest in improving South Africa’s vaccine capacity after witnessing “vaccine apartheid” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unlike current vaccines that are based on stimulating the body to produce antibodies, Soon-Shiong’s approach is based on stimulating the body’s T-cell responses – something he has done successfully in cancer immunotherapy treatment.

His U.S. company, NantKwest, has been developing “natural killer” (NK) cells used by the immune system to identify and destroy cells under stress, including cancerous or virally-infected cells.