Sanofi will invest €400 million over five years to create a unique vaccine production site in Singapore, pushing the boundaries of operations through cutting edge manufacturing and digital technologies.
Announced in early April 2021, Sanofi will be developing a new vaccine production site in Singapore to enhance its ability to produce innovative vaccines on a massive scale for Asia, and quickly respond to future pandemic risks. In partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) the Singapore site will complement Sanofi’s existing manufacturing capacities in Europe and North America and will become a regional centre of excellence for vaccines production in Asia.
“As a major healthcare player, it’s our responsibility to act and to meet the unprecedented growing demands for vaccines. By investing in a new production site in Singapore, Sanofi is aiming to strengthen production capacity to meet ever-growing global demands on vaccines, and answer more rapidly to future pandemics,” said Thomas Triomphe, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Sanofi Pasteur. “We are very pleased by the strong collaboration with the Singapore Economic Development Board to achieve this exciting milestone.”
Sanofi, with its global entity Sanofi Pasteur, a leading vaccine developer and manufacturer, offers a portfolio of vaccines to protect all age ranges from infectious diseases. This factory will be designed around a central unit housing several fully digitalized modules that allow production of three to four vaccines simultaneously, versus only one in current industrial sites. In addition, the factory will have the flexibility to leverage multiple vaccine manufacturing technology platforms based on different types of cell. This modularity and flexibility will allow the production of a specific vaccine to be prioritized in a faster timeframe depending on public health needs.
The project is currently entering its design phase with construction expected to begin in Q3 2021. The five-year project will see the site fully operational in Q1 2026 once all qualifications and validations of the first manufactured vaccine have been completed.
In the context of Sanofi’s environmental strategy, the site is designed to be carbon-neutral, and to drastically reduce both resource consumption and waste production.
“Sanofi’s decision to locate its first-in-Asia digitally-enabled vaccine production centre in Singapore, to supply markets in the region and beyond, is an endorsement of Singapore’s position as a leading centre for advanced manufacturing” said Dr Beh Swan Gin, Chairman, EDB. “EDB will continue to promote digitalization, automation and innovation to transform the manufacturing sector and create good jobs for Singaporeans.”
The investment in a new vaccine manufacturing facility demonstrates Sanofi’s overall growth strategy with vaccines contributing to it as a key growth driver through differentiated products, market expansion and new launches. This follows an earlier announcement made in March 2021 to build a new facility in Canada to increase its global availability of high-dose influenza vaccine. [APBN]