Onderstepoort Biological Products is struggling to find a suitable specialist adviser to assist with its project to improve manufacturing standards, Parliament has heard. OBP also reported a loss for the first two quarters of the financial year.
By Francois Williams, senior journalist at African Farming and Landbouweekblad
Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP) has twice advertised for a specialist adviser for the project to bring its facilities up to the internationally accepted standard of good manufacturing practice (GMP). However, on both occasions, the responses to the advertisements did not yield a suitable candidate, Parliament’s portfolio committee on agriculture heard on Tuesday, 3 March, during a presentation by OBP officials and the Department of Agriculture.
In October last year, the same committee heard from OBP that the specialist adviser would be appointed by the end of that month.
The GMP project has been dragging on for years and is essential to bring OBP’s production of animal medicines up to international standards.
According to a presentation by OBP, work to refine specifications for supply chain management is still ongoing.
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Although a vacancy in OBP’s finance department for a cost and management accountant has been filled, the state-owned enterprise has not yet appointed a permanent CEO nor CFO. According to the presentation, a recommendation for an appointment to the position of CEO has been made to the department, and the process to appoint a permanent CFO is also underway.
OBP’s project to install two new freeze-dryers also appears to have been delayed. According to the presentation, the freeze dryer from supplier GEA is expected to be operational by the end of March, with performance testing to be completed by the end of May. The freeze dryer supplied by Telstar is expected to be operational by mid-March, with performance testing to be completed by the end of March. In October, Parliament was told that both freeze-dryers would be operational by the end of December.
OBP also reported on the first two quarters of its 2025–26 financial year, and the outlook is not positive. The entity suffered a loss of R5,68 million during this period compared with a profit of R16,46 million in the same period a year earlier. This is R22,14 million lower than the corresponding period last year and R12,72 million lower than the budgeted target of R7,03 million.
Although its gross income for the two quarters to the end of September last year was R5 million higher at R130 million, the cost of sales rose sharply to R72 million compared with R34 million in the comparative period.
OBP indicated in the presentation that R35,904 million of this amount relates to the cost of the foot-and-mouth disease vaccine purchased from the Argentinian supplier Biogénesis Bagó. Import duties and freight costs were indicated at R6 million.
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