Microbix has signed a joint venture agreement with the Hunan Biopharmaceutical (Hunan) to build influenza vaccine production facility, located in Changsha National Biomedical Park near Changsha City, the capital of Hunan Province.
The agreement forms an equal partnership joint venture which will have the capacity to produce more than 100 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccine annually, and up to 300 million doses of pandemic influenza vaccine in the event of an outbreak.
The company said that the the construction of the facility will begin in early 2010 and be fully operational by 2013. It will be designed around Microbix Virusmax vaccine technology. Virusmax is designed to increase influenza vaccine yields and has demonstrated an average yield increase of two-fold over current production methods.
Reportedly, the Microbix-Hunan project brings government ownership into the global vaccine industry at a technological level not previously achieved in China. Hunan has agreed to provide additional funding through debt and has guaranteed the purchase of 100 million influenza vaccine doses. On all vaccine produced at the facility, Microbix is expected to receive royalty payments and hold exclusive marketing rights outside of China.
The quality of the vaccine manufactured at the Microbix-Hunan facility will enable it to seek approval by the FDA and European Medicines Agency.
William Gastle, chairman and CEO at Microbix, said: “We’re pleased that our innovative Virusmax influenza vaccine technology will contribute significantly to seasonal and pandemic influenza preparedness in the future. Microbix will play a major role in meeting the public health needs in China where, due to limited vaccine production capacity, only 2% of the population is immunised against flu, while the World Health Organisation recommends that countries have the capacity to vaccinate at least 60% of their populations.
“This facility will make China an important source of influenza vaccine in the Asia region as well as offering significant capacity for the Chinese market which is growing significantly. In five years, the China market is expected to demand up to 500 million influenza vaccine doses annually.”