The €400m ($475m) site will mainly supply Asia but also complement existing manufacturing capabilities in Europe and North America. In partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board, 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’.
The facility will be designed to respond quickly to future pandemic risks – boasting the flexibility to accommodate different vaccine manufacturing platforms - and become a regional center of excellence for vaccine production in Asia.
It will be designed around a central unit housing several fully digitalized modules that can produce three to four vaccines simultaneously (current industrial sites only allow for one). The factory will also 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 timeframe depending on public health needs,” says Sanofi.
Construction is set to begin in Q3 2021, with the site becoming fully operational in Q1 2026.
“As a major healthcare player, it’s our responsibility to act and to meet the unprecedented growing demands for vaccines," said Thomas Triomphe, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Sanofi Pasteur.
"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,”
Unveiled in December 2019, Sanofi’s growth strategy puts vaccines as one of its three key pillars for the future: focusing on differentiated products, market expansion and new launches.
In March, the French pharmaceutical giant announced the creation of a new $713m facility in Toronto to boost supplies of its Fluzone High-Dose Quadrivalent influenza vaccine in Canada, the US and Europe (also expected to become operational in 2026). Additional influenza vaccine sites are also expected to start operation in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania; and Val-de-Reuil, France; in the coming years.
