New Facility Will More Than Double Flu Vaccine

One of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, Sanofi Aventis, announced in a press release that completed construction on a new United States influenza vaccine manufacturing facility. Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi Aventis, stated that this new manufacturing facility will more than double its production capacity in the United States.

Sanofi Pasteur provided more than a billion doses of vaccine in 2006. This made it possible to immunize more than $500 million people worldwide. Sanofi Pasteur is the largest company in the world dedicated entirely to vaccines; they have a specific mission to protect against a potential pandemic influenza virus.

The new manufacturing facility is 140,000 square feet and cost approximately 150 million dollars. The cost may seem quite high, but the new facility will make possible 100 million dozes of the influenza vaccine per year. This more than doubles what they could produce prior to the completion of this new facility.

The facility is not in operation yet, but it is expected to be up and running either in late 2008 or early 2009. Sanofi Pasteur must get properly licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before they can begin full operations.

Additionally, the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, Mike Leavitt, announced last month that Sanofi Pasteur would be granted a $77.4 million dollar contract, of which Sanofi Aventis will contribute $25 million, to retrofit an existing influenza manufacturing facility. This retrofitted facility, along with the new facility, will make it possible for Sanofi Pasteur to more than triple its influenza vaccine capacity in the United States. Sanofi Pastuer also manufactures the influenza vaccine in France.

This increased capacity will hopefully greatly benefit the serious threat that influenza poses. Influenza may not be thought of as a serious disease; however, it actually causes more than 36,000 deaths in the United States each year according to the Immunization Action Coalition. Major epidemics on an international scale are a potential threat. For example, the "Spanish flu" epidemic in the early 1990s caused nearly 21 million deaths worldwide, of which approximately 500,000 were Americans.

Although there are other natural ways to prevent influenza, vaccinations provide the primary way for protecting oneself from the flu. But, because the influenza virus mutates often, it is important that vaccinations are made available to those who want them on a large scale. Hopefully this new facility and the millions of additional vaccines made available will help a lot more people avoid the flu this year.

Sources:

Sanofi Aventis Press Release, http://en.sanofi-aventis.com/Images/070720_USflufacility_EN_tcm24-17091.pdf

Immunization Action Coalition, http://www.vaccineinformation.org/flu/