Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong will give an initial $213 million to South Africa, the country of his birth, to help with the transfer of new technology for COVID-19 vaccines and other therapies. This will help “address variants of the coronavirus that might make current vaccines less effective” and to ensure manufacturing of shots needed for other diseases, he said. Soon-Shiong’s comments come after one of his companies, ImmunityBio Inc., agreed to a deal to manufacture coronavirus vaccine doses with the BioVac Institute, a state-backed South African vaccine company. That’s led to global fears about the spread of new variants that may prove resistant to current vaccines. South Africa and India are leading a campaign to compel drugmakers to waive patents and share so-called recipes to speed up global distribution.

Source: Los Angeles Times May 13, 2021 15:36 UTC