Sanofi-aventis Invests E100m In New Facility In Mexico

Sanofi-aventis has signed an agreement with the Mexican authorities to build a E100m facility to manufacture influenza vaccine in Mexico.

The agreement was signed by Birmex’ (Laboratorio de Biológicos y Reactivos de México) and sanofi-aventis. This facility will be built and operated by sanofi pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group.

Reportedly, under the terms of the agreement, sanofi pasteur will manufacture influenza vaccine in collaboration with Birmex, a Mexican federal vaccine manufacturer. Birmex will perform certain stages of manufacturing and will be responsible for distributing influenza vaccines to the public in Mexico.

The facility would have a yearly capacity of up to 25 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccine.

The new influenza vaccine plant will be built in Ocoyoacac, where sanofi-aventis already operates a facility. The plant will be designed to switch to pandemic vaccine manufacturing if a human influenza pandemic is declared and a pandemic influenza strain is identified by the World Health Organization (WHO), said the company.

Chris Viehbacher, CEO of Sanofi-aventis, said: “By building this new facility, sanofi-aventis is proud to contribute to the strengthening of Mexico’s health infrastructure and is eager to support Mexico’s exemplary commitment to public health through influenza immunization and pandemic readiness. This investment illustrates sanofi-aventis’ local approach to global health. This facility will benefit public health in Mexico and the Latin American region, in the context of influenza pandemic preparedness.”