Microbix and Hunan Biopharmaceutical to build Asia's largest influenza vaccine facility

Canadian biotech company Microbix, a developer of a patented technology that doubles the output of influenza vaccine production, has signed a joint venture agreement with the Hunan Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd for initial financing to construct Asia's largest influenza vaccine production facility and the third largest vaccine plant in the world.

The agreement forms an equal partnership joint venture to build and operate a US$200m (Euro 136m) facility, located in Changsha National Biomedical Park near Changsha City, the capital of Hunan Province. Construction will begin in early 2010 and the facility is expected to be fully operational by 2013.

The plant will have the capacity to produce more than 100 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccine annually, and up to 300 million doses of a pandemic influenza vaccine in the event of an outbreak to immunise against a single strain of influenza. It will be designed around Microbix VIRUSMAX vaccine technology. More than five years in development at Microbix, VIRUSMAX is designed to increase influenza vaccine yields and has demonstrated an average yield increase of two-fold over current production methods.

This facility will make China a leader in the production of flu vaccine. Microbix will play a major role in meeting the public health needs in China where, due to limited vaccine production capacity, only 2% of the population is immunised against flu, while the World Health Organisation recommends that countries have the capacity to vaccinate at least 60% of their populations.

"This facility will make China an important source of influenza vaccine in the Asia region as well as offering significant capacity for the Chinese market which is growing significantly," said William J. Gastle, Microbix chairman and ceo. "In five years, the China market is expected to demand up to 500 million influenza vaccine doses annually. We're pleased that our innovative influenza vaccine technology will contribute significantly to seasonal and pandemic influenza preparedness in the future."

Microbix will receive royalty payments on all vaccine produced at the facility, and will hold exclusive marketing rights outside of China. The quality of the vaccine manufactured at the Microbix-Hunan facility will enable it to seek approval by the US FDA and the European Medicines Agency.