
Protein Sciences builds flu vaccine facility
pharmafile | December 6, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â FDA, ProteinÂ
US drugmaker Protein Sciences has taken over a manufacturing facility formerly owned by Pfizer’s Wyeth unit as it prepares for FDA approval of its new flu vaccine Flublok.
A Biologics License Application (BLA) for Flublok is in the final stages at the US regulator and if approved would be the first vaccine of its type to be made in insect cells.
Protein Sciences has developed a proprietary cell culture-based production platform called BEVS which uses a baculovirus to engineer insect cells to produce recombinant proteins and – says the company – offers rapid set-up, improved yields and lower costs compared to other production systems.
Now, the company has acquired the former Wyeth plant in Pearl River, New York, and says it intends to hire 50 people to man the facility, potentially increasing that to 150 in the next 10 years.
The Wyeth facility is intended to meet predicted future demand for Flublok when Protein Sciences’ existing small-scale facility in Meriden, Connecticut, is no longer able to meet requirements. Analysts have suggested in the past that the vaccine could achieve sales in excess of $1 billion at peak.
The company said the multimillion dollar investment would include the purchase of machinery and equipment to establish a Flublok production line on the Pearl River campus, as well as engineering and process validation. It has taken leases on two buildings which together cover an area of around 83,000 sq. ft.
This is the second piece of good news for New York’s pharma sector in as many months, after Regeneron said it would invest around $70 million in the construction of two facilities at its Rensselaer site in East Greenbush.
The Protein Sciences “announcement demonstrates that our efforts to reopen New York State’s doors to business and make it a more welcoming place for new investment is paying off”, commented New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in a statement.
Phil Taylor
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