South Africa Launches FuturePHARMA to Expand Local Drug Manufacturing

South Africa has launched CSIR FuturePHARMA, a new platform aimed at strengthening pharmaceutical research, vaccine development and local medicine production.

The facility was launched on October 7 in Tshwane and is designed to help researchers, universities, startups and pharmaceutical companies move new health products from laboratory research into commercial production.

Moving Research Into Production

FuturePHARMA will provide access to specialised equipment, technical expertise and facilities for pharmaceutical technology development.

The platform will focus on areas such as process development, production scale-up and technology transfer. This could help address a major gap in the pharmaceutical sector, where promising research can struggle to move through clinical development, regulatory approval and into commercial manufacturing.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said the facility could strengthen South Africa’s ability to develop vaccines and other pharmaceutical products locally.

The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the risks of relying heavily on international suppliers for medicines and pharmaceutical inputs. FuturePHARMA is part of efforts to build more domestic capacity and improve the country's ability to respond to future health emergencies.

South Africa Still Relies Heavily on Imports

South Africa imports about 98% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used by local manufacturers, according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The country spends approximately R15 billion ($900 million) each year on API imports.

South Africa does, however, have a relatively established pharmaceutical formulation industry. Local manufacturers produce more than 60% of the pharmaceutical products sold in the country, according to the CSIR.

FuturePHARMA is intended to strengthen the part of the value chain that sits between research and large-scale production, including the development and manufacturing of pharmaceutical ingredients and products.

Vaccine Manufacturing Also Expanding

The initiative forms part of wider efforts to expand South Africa’s pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity.

In 2025, the government announced a new product development facility that will support BIOVAC’s vaccine research and manufacturing capabilities.

The facility is expected to produce vaccines for cholera, polio, pneumonia and meningitis, with an annual capacity of between 30 million and 40 million doses. It is expected to become operational in 2028.

The project is also expected to create more than 340 skilled jobs and 7,000 indirect jobs.

Wider African Opportunity

FuturePHARMA is also intended to support pharmaceutical development beyond South Africa.

The platform plans to work with African researchers, institutions and companies as countries look to increase local production of medicines, vaccines and other health products.

Africa remains heavily dependent on imports, with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimating that the continent imports more than 95% of its APIs and 70% of the medicines consumed by its population.

With only about 600 health-product manufacturing facilities serving a population of around 1.1 billion people, expanding pharmaceutical production capacity remains a major opportunity for African manufacturers and health-tech companies.

FuturePHARMA could give South African researchers and emerging companies access to infrastructure needed to take pharmaceutical innovations from the laboratory into the market, while also creating opportunities to build stronger pharmaceutical supply chains across the continent.