Page 99 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 3

Erasmus retired from OBP to concentrate on his farming enterprise in the Western Cape in 1995 and J. Broekman – OBP’s Chief: Vaccine Production since 1982 – was appointed as its Director in 1996.
Onderstepoort Biological Products Ltd (OBP) – a State corporation
The final step in the evolution of the
vaccine factory (OBP) during the century
of its existence occurred in 2000 when it
became a State corporation fully owned
by the National Department of Agriculture
under the Onderstepoort Biological Pro-
ducts Incorporation Act 1999 (Act No 19
of 1999). OBP is controlled by a Board of
Directors currently consisting of five non-executive directors and one executive director, the Managing Director.
The seemingly endless saga of trying to disentangle the ownership of the building occupied by both OBP and the OVI was only finalized in May 2005. By that time the OVI had already moved its administrative and relevant research activities to older buildings. Moreover, the entire piece of land occupied by OBP was finally fenced off from the OVI campus by a stout structure, thereby ensuring that physical sepa- ration was also complete.
When Broekman went on pension in December 1998, W.J.S. (Willie) Botha took over as Acting Director and was replaced by Linda Makuleni in November 2001 as Chief Executive Officer (later Managing Director) of the recently established corporation. OBP has proved to be very profitable in recent years, particularly on
account of the large volumes
of vaccine (especially against
botulism) and hyperimmune
sera that were exported to
countries especially in Europe
and South America.
On the other hand it has been experiencing in- creasing local competition from products manufactured overseas and in this country. This is mainly because of the opening up of South Africa’s borders due to the lifting of sanctions since 1994 and the government’s policy of promoting sound economic competition.
OBP implemented the ISO Total Quality Manage- ment System and received a
ONDERSTEPOORT 100
positive audit from the Registrar of Act 36 of 1947 during 2003. It also erected a state of the art experimental animal facility costing approximately R15 million in 2004 and is now breeding Specific Pathogen Free laboratory animals. OBP’s staff was transferred from the National Depart- ment of Agriculture to the Corporation in 2002. OBP’s export business was enhanced by the bluetongue vaccine required to control outbreaks of bluetongue in Euro- pean countries such as Italy, Spain and Portugal. It also won an FAO tender for the supply of contagious bovine pleu- ropneumonia (lungsickness) vaccine to Zambia in 2005.
A selection of OBP vaccines 189
The state of the art ‘Usifroid’ lyophilization plant which was installed in 1992
Vaccine Production and Onderstepoort Biological Products
1908-2008
Years