Novartis adds R&D unit to new vaccines plant
pharmafile | December 31, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Research and Development |Â Â Novartis, pharma manufacturing, vaccinesÂ
Swiss drugmaker Novartis is planning to spend $36 million to set up an R&D laboratory on the site of its large vaccine manufacturing facility in North Carolina, USA, which started operations last year.
The new lab will employ around 100 staff and focus on the development of new vaccine products, according to a report in the local News & Observer newspaper. It will also contain a small-scale pilot plant to provide vaccine prototypes for clinical testing and to help process scale up.
Novartis’ 300,000 sq.ft. vaccine plant in Holly Springs opened in November last year and cost an estimated $1 billion to set up. Currently employing more than 200 people, it is still going through the validation process and is expected to start commercial production by 2013, with the workforce expected to then swell to around 350.
State and local incentives for the initial vaccine plant totalled around $40 million, and the new lab will also benefit to the tune of around $4.7 million in subsidies if it meets employment targets.
Holly Springs is among the first plants in the US that will manufacture influenza vaccines in cell culture systems, and will also make Novartis’ proprietary vaccine adjuvant MF59, used to boost the immune response to an antigen.
The unit is designed to supply 150 million doses of pandemic vaccine within six months of influenza pandemic declaration.
“Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics is excited to start construction of our new viral lab and pilot plant that will enable us to advance our viral vaccines pipeline and develop new technologies so we can get life-saving vaccines to patients quicker,” commented Matthew Stober, who heads up the technical operations of the Novartis business unit.
Phil Taylor
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