Sanofi-aventis builds new Euro 350m vaccine manufacturing facility in France

Leading vaccine manufacturer Sanofi-aventis has begun the construction of a new Sanofi Pasteur vaccine manufacturing centre in Neuville-sur-Saone, France. Located close to Lyon in the southeast of the country, the Euro 350m project is the largest spend in the Sanofi Pasteur global vaccines industrial network.

The facility will be equipped with state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies and will produce 100 million doses of the novel vaccine against dengue fever, currently under development. It will employ 200 people and is expected to be operational in 2013.

Dengue fever is a tropical disease for which there is no specific treatment. Of the estimated 230 million people infected annually, 2 million, mostly children, develop dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), a severe form of the disease.

This investment complements the â"šÂ¬700m already invested in vaccines by the group in France over the last five years. With the new vaccine production centre in Neuville-sur-Saone, sanofi-aventis will have invested more than â"šÂ¬1bn in France since 2005 to respond to world demand for vaccines. Recent key investments include production facilities for pediatric, influenza, and polio vaccines.

"This new vaccine production centre illustrates our commitment to providing solutions to unmet medical needs such as dengue, a disease that potentially puts almost half of the world's population at risk," said Christopher A. Viehbacher, ceo of sanofi-aventis.