Sanofi Pasteur Gives E&C Firm Greenlight for Construction of $150 Million Vaccine Plant in Pennsylvania

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Sanofi pasteur's 275-acre Swiftwater, Pennsylvania campus, the only location in the U.S. that manufactures injectable influenza vaccines, is growing once again. The company, a division of the sanofi aventis Group (Paris:SAN) (Paris, France), has given the go ahead to Jacobs Engineering (Pasadena, California) to begin construction of a $150 million vaccine manufacturing plant.

Sanofi pasteur needs the increased manufacturing capacity as it strives to provide adequate supplies of influenza vaccines both domestically and abroad. The company has a number of current vaccine-related contracts from the U.S. government, including a $97 million project to explore cell-culture technology in regards to vaccine production. Globally, Sanofi aventis currently produces over one billion doses of vaccine each year to protect some 400 million people against 20 serious diseases.

Earlier this year, the company sought and received a $3.5 million loan from local officials for a sewer project at the Swiftwater site that would accommodate the increased wastewater resulting from a production expansion. That approval paved the way for construction to start this month on the new 145,000 square-foot plant.

The project will effectively double sanofi pasteur's existing vaccine production capacity and also replace existing antiquated operations at the nearly 60-year-old manufacturing site. The company hopes to have the plant validated and in production in time for the 2009 flu season. The current Swiftwater workforce of over 1,500 is expected to increase by 100 when the plant comes online.

Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is a highly contagious respiratory illness. It spreads easily from person to person, primarily when an infected individual coughs or sneezes. Unfortunately, the virus can also be transmitted before any symptoms appear. The flu’s dangers have long been recognized -- it sends an average of 200,000 people to the hospital and causes over 30,000 deaths annually in the U.S. The growing international need for increased development and manufacturing capacity of vaccines to combat the flu and other viruses is discussed in the 2005 Pharmaceutical Industry Forecast.

As reported in Industrialinfo.com's Pharmaceutical Tracker - Online Database, the Washington Group served as E&C for the $77.5 million, 100,000-square-foot, two-story vaccine filling and formulation facility, which got underway in 2003. That project is expected to be complete in December 2005. The Swiftwater site also serves as the company's U.S. headquarters.

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