Page 97 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 3

ONDERSTEPOORT 100
Picture above: Lyophilization plant in the 1970s featuring J.B. Bester (left) and an unidentified person Picture below: Bottling machine in the 1970s featuring T. Fouche (left), who conceptualised and manufactured it
a so-called notifiable disease, was a State responsi- bility, the government financed the entire Laboratory. Only if surplus vaccine was available was it sold to neighbouring countries that were also afflicted by the SAT strains. Later tailor-made FMD vaccine against the offending strain, or even substrain, was sometimes prepared for local or foreign use. However, the income obtained from the latter went into the State coffers, not into the trade account. The FMD Laboratory’s expertise in the typing of virus strains became much sought after, despite strong competition from a similar IFFA Merieux laboratory in Botswana. Export of surplus vaccine and tailor-made vaccine for a country like Zimbabwe was also possible from time to time. The FMD Laboratory eventually obtained special Treasury dispensation for the retention of this income.
Although the Vaccine Factory had its own retail outlet for the sale of vaccines (see above) most of its vaccine was acquired by private pharmaceutical companies who did the bulk of the distribution, as mentioned. The emer- gence of closer co-operation with the pharmaceutical private sector was a further development that was initiated in the 1980s. Collaboration with the company Coopers SA Ltd involved the production of blackquarter vaccine. The technology used by the New Zealand branch of the Company was made available to the Vaccine Factory. It concerned the production of
refined peptones for use in the culture
medium used for the production of the
toxin. The Company was rewarded by a
portion of the income derived from the sale
of the ‘new’ vaccine.
Erasmus kept a tight rein on the factory and was also intimately involved in the virological developmental research which was conducted at the factory level. He was, for example, responsible for the urgent development and production of an in- activated vaccine against equine influenza when the disease broke out in South Africa for the first time in 1986. He had antici- pated that it would sooner or later be introduced by means of imported horses and had obtained the required virus strains and technology from elsewhere in good time. He was also responsible for the selection of appropriate strains of African horsesick- ness virus for inclusion in Onderstepoort’s polyvalent live, attenuated vaccine. The
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“One of the main functions of the Foot and Mouth Disease Laboratory, which was commissioned early in 1980, was to produce foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccine for use within the borders of South Africa. As vaccination against FMD, by law a so-called notifiable disease, was a State responsibility, the government financed the entire Laboratory.”
same applied to the bluetongue vaccine (for more details see Part 3: Virology).
Considerable organizational turmoil was caused at the Institute by the government’s introduction of that ill-fated political manoeuvre known as the Three Chamber Parliament in 1984. The Institute became a so-called ‘own affairs’ institution (under the Department of Agricultural Technical Services) whereas the Vaccine Factory was clearly a ‘general affairs’ enterprise which would then have to resort under the Directorate of Veterinary Services of the Department of Agriculture. This would mean that the close ties which had hitherto existed between the Vaccine Factory and the research sections would be severed. In such a dispensation the Factory could only become the responsibility of the Directorate of Veterinary Services. The latter was, however, also convinced that the Institute should manage the factory.
Vaccine Production and Onderstepoort Biological Products
1908-2008
Years