Aventis Pasteur to get new US vaccine plant

Aventis Pasteur in the USA has signed up Pharmadule, a division ofPharmadule Emtunga AB, to supply a turnkey modular plant for the production of vaccines.

The plant, which will be designed and built in Sweden in compliance with worldwide regulatory agencies' requirements, and thereafter delivered to Aventis Pasteur's present manufacturing site at Swiftwater, Pennsylvania, will produce meningitis vaccines. The new facility is part of the company's long-term plans for ensuring a dependable supply of four-component meningococcal vaccine to meet growing global demand, said Jim Robinson, vice president of industrial operations for Aventis Pasteur in the USA.

This is Pharmadule's first plant for bulk vaccine production supplied to the US market, although it has recently delivered four plants and two more are under construction for other major US drugmakers, such as Merck & Co and Eli Lilly, according to the Swedish firm's general manager, Hans Sundin.