Sanofi & Glaxo Smith Kline Ramp Up - H5N1 Captain Trips?
Work began Wednesday on a new $150 million factory to make flu vaccines, a facility designed to boost the nation's precarious vaccine supply.
The new Sanofi-Pasteur SA factory, which company officials said should be ready for production for the 2009 flu season, replaces an existing factory in Swiftwater.
It will double the capability for producing flu vaccine and is expected to add 100 production jobs, company officials said. About 1,500 people work at the 276-acre campus, about 80 miles north of Philadelphia.
The new plant construction begins as rival Chiron Corp. disclosed further contamination problems Wednesday at a German plant.
Sanofi-Pasteur, a division of French pharmaceutical maker Sanofi-Aventis SA, is currently the nation's largest flu-shot provider and the only company manufacturing injectable flu vaccine in the United States. Sanofi-Pasteur is expected to supply 60 million flu shots in the upcoming flu season.
GlaxoSmithKline PLC, which has its U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia and Research Triangle Park, N.C., in May applied to have its flu vaccine made available to the United States. It already sells Fluarix in more than 75 countries.
GlaxoSmithKline is expected to sell as many as 10 million flu shots in the United States this flu season if the Food and Drug Administration approves its marketing application.
MedImmune Inc. of Gaithersburg, Md., is expected to provide 3 million doses of its nasal spray vaccine.
Sanofi Plant in PA
The new Sanofi-Pasteur SA factory, which company officials said should be ready for production for the 2009 flu season, replaces an existing factory in Swiftwater.
It will double the capability for producing flu vaccine and is expected to add 100 production jobs, company officials said. About 1,500 people work at the 276-acre campus, about 80 miles north of Philadelphia.
The new plant construction begins as rival Chiron Corp. disclosed further contamination problems Wednesday at a German plant.
Sanofi-Pasteur, a division of French pharmaceutical maker Sanofi-Aventis SA, is currently the nation's largest flu-shot provider and the only company manufacturing injectable flu vaccine in the United States. Sanofi-Pasteur is expected to supply 60 million flu shots in the upcoming flu season.
GlaxoSmithKline PLC, which has its U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia and Research Triangle Park, N.C., in May applied to have its flu vaccine made available to the United States. It already sells Fluarix in more than 75 countries.
GlaxoSmithKline is expected to sell as many as 10 million flu shots in the United States this flu season if the Food and Drug Administration approves its marketing application.
MedImmune Inc. of Gaithersburg, Md., is expected to provide 3 million doses of its nasal spray vaccine.
Sanofi Plant in PA
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