The country's largest pharmaceutical company, Aspen Pharmacare, opened a R1bn high containment facility in Port Elizabeth, a first of it's kind in the country.
The facility, which will produce high potency pharmaceutical products including the production of medical treatment for late stages of cancers and medicine aimed at preventing organ tissue rejection after transplants, was officially opened at the Aspen local manufacturing plant on Monday.
Aspen Group CEO, Stephen Saad, said the high potency manufacturing facility further cementing the company's position as the largest private investor in the South African pharmaceutical industry.
"Aspen's ongoing investment in its South African manufacturing sites bolsters the introduction of new technologies, the addition of skilled employment opportunities and the enhancement of our country's export capability," he said.
Saad said Aspen's operations employ over 2500 people in the province of which 2000 are at the Port Elizabeth site.
He added that the new facility, together with the planned sterile facility currently being built at the same site, would provide 500 additional jobs in the Nelson Mandela Bay.
"If you look at our expansion programmes here as they roll out, we are looking at ultimately at about 500 more jobs, that's on top of 2000 that we have and they are good jobs, they are skilled jobs and they are well-paid jobs," Saad added.
Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, said the investment would significantly strengthen the country's capacity as a manufacturer of quality pharmaceutical products.
"Aspen's expansion into the High Potency Facility will enable the manufacture of products not previously produced locally and also add to the export capacity of Aspen contributing to the overall growth of the pharmaceutical sector and will potentially have a positive impact on lowering the current trade deficit within this sector," said Davies.
Minister Davies said that the facility would further enhance both South Africa and Aspen's status in terms of regional and continental trade.
Davies said the contribution of manufacturing in the pharmaceutical sector was about 0.48% of the GDP which plays a small part in the economy and employs about 9 600 people.
Nelson Mandela Bay Executive Mayor, Athol Trollip said Aspen's investment was exciting for the city as the greatest challenge facing Nelson Mandela Bay was unemployment.
Trollip said one of the municipality's goals was to keep residents from the Bay from leaving the city to seek work.
"My experience has been that whenever companies invested in the city they have said that the people they can employ in Nelson Mandela Bay are extraordinary people and that explains why you find people from the Eastern Cape everywhere else. So, if we can keep people from this city in this city working here, we able to tighten up family bonds and people can see a future beyond schooling," Trollip said.
