Sanofi to expand flu vaccine output

French drug major Sanofi-Aventis has completed construction of its new flu vaccines facility at Swiftwater in Pennsylvania, USA, at a cost of $150.0 million. The unit effectively doubles the group's manufacturing capacity in the USA. Production is scheduled to start either at the end of 2008 or early 2009 - the time required for regulatory approval of the vaccines manufacturing process. A spokesman for the group's vaccines subsidiary, Sanofi-Pasteur, has said that with the company's unit in France at Val-de-Reuil and the modernization of another US plant, vaccines output is set to rise from 170 million doses annually at present to 250-300 million doses by 2010.

UBS sector analysts estimate that, with other groups expanding output - notably GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Solvay, the world flu vaccines market will expand from 400 million doses at present to over 800 million by 2010 with sales rising from $2.0 billion to over $6.0 billion. Sanofi-Pasteur said that the expansion has been triggered by concerns over avian flu virus and that, even if this is distinct from winter flu, governments have seen the need to be well prepared for any eventual pandemic. Traditional seasonal flu remains an important contributor to sales with Sanofi-Aventis delivering some 170 million doses (2006) worth some 835.0 million euros ($1.15 billion) - an increase of 27.5% on 2005.