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Sanofi to shell out US$480 million over five years to construct an advanced vaccine manufacturing site in Singapore
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New production center aims to produce innovative vaccines on a massive scale for Asia and quickly respond to future pandemic risks
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Construction to begin in the third quarter of 2021 and full operations slated for the first quarter of 2026
Sanofi has announced a plan to invest EUR400 million (US$480 million) over five years to build a cutting-edge, digitally enabled vaccine production center in Singapore that will mainly supply the Asian region.
The manufacturing center will be undertaken in partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and complement existing manufacturing capacities in Europe and North America, the vaccine developer and manufacturer said in a statement.
The factory will be designed around a central unit housing several fully digitalized modules that will allow three to four vaccines to be produced simultaneously, versus only one in current industrial sites.
In addition, it will have the flexibility to leverage multiple vaccine manufacturing technology platforms based on different cell types. This modularity and flexibility will allow the production of a specific vaccine to be prioritized in a faster time frame depending on public health needs, said the global biopharmaceutical company.
The site is designed to be carbon-neutral, and to drastically reduce both resource consumption and waste production.
The project is currently entering its design phase, with construction expected to begin in the third quarter of 2021.
The five-year project will see the site fully operational in the first quarter of 2026 once all qualifications and validations of the first manufactured vaccine have been completed.
“The investment furthers Sanofi’s commitment to driving the future of vaccines by expanding manufacturing capabilities to ensure quality and scale, while responding to the risk of future pandemics,” the company said.
The project is expected to create up to 200 local jobs and enhance Singapore’s position as a regional innovation hub for the healthcare industry.
“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.
“Sanofi’s decision to locate its first-in-Asia digitally-enabled vaccine production center 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 EDB chairman Beh Swan Gin.
Illustration courtesy of Sanofi
