Page 98 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 3

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ERSTEPOORT 100
Modern (Braun) fermentors, which were installed in the early 1990s
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The status quo was eventually formalized by means of a special Cabinet Decision that gave the Institute temporary custody over the Factory. In practice this became a ‘permanent’ arrangement.
D.W. Verwoerd replaced Bigalke as director of the Institute in 1988. The vaccine factory’s improved financial position en- abled it to contract the Institute to conduct much needed research on its behalf. This, inter alia, led to the development of improved clostridial vaccines and a new leukotoxin vaccine against pasteurellosis. Research on recombinant vaccines led to development of a recombinant baculovirus-bluetongue virus vaccine that protected sheep against infection.
“The facilities for vaccine production were further improved by the installation of state of the art fermentors and
a modern lyophilization plant. These improvements facilitated the factory’s attainment of good manufacturing practice (GMP) status and promoted its increasing competition with commercial companies.”
Council (ARC) was created by imple- mentation of the Agricultural Research Act 1990 (Act No. 86 of 1990). This Act facilitated the transfer of the Veterinary Research Institute, Onderstepoort, and the 12 other agricultural research institutes of the Department of Agricultural Technical Services, to this newly created parastatal body. As discussed in Part I, the ARC was hesitant to accept the financial responsibili- ty for the Vaccine Factory, which was therefore not transferred to the ARC. The close ties between the functions of research and vaccine production that had existed for so many decades were therefore finally severed. The Factory was now completely independent from the Institute, which acquired a new name, i.e. Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute (OVI). The Factory be- came the responsibility of the Department of Agricultural Technical Services.
Further scaling up of the technology will,
however, be necessary for it to be of practical
use. The facilities for vaccine production
were further improved by the installation of
state of the art fermentors and a modern lyophilization plant. These improvements facilitated the factory’s attainment of good manufacturing practice (GMP) status and promoted its increasing competition with commercial companies.
The time was now ripe for the Factory to have its own brand name: Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP), as suggested by Verwoerd. When the Department of Agricultural Technical Services was amalgamated with the existing Department of Agriculture in 1993 to form a newly constituted department with much wider responsibilities, a restructuring process that marked the end of the failed ‘own affairs’ political pipe dream, OBP became the responsibility of the new Department of Agriculture and was made an independent directorate of the latter in 1995.
Separation and the establishment of
‘Onderstepoort Biological Products’
The next dramatic organizational change to affect the Vaccine Factory occurred in 1992 when the Agricultural Research
PART 3
History of Individual Disciplines
1908-2008
Years