Sanofi Expands Pandemic Flu Vaccine Manufacturing

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines global business unit of Sanofi, has entered into an agreement with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to increase the company's domestic pandemic influenza vaccine production capabilities based in Swiftwater, PA, the company announced in a Dec. 9, 2019 press release. The contract is supported by federal funds from the Biomedical Advance Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at HHS.

"The question is not if, but when the next influenza pandemic will occur, carrying potentially devastating consequences for public health and the US economy," said BARDA director Rick Bright, in the release. "As the recent presidential executive order on pandemic preparedness emphasized, technology to produce effective vaccines quickly and safely in the United States can improve access, protect more people sooner and, ultimately, strengthen national and global health security. Public-private partnerships, such as this one with Sanofi Pasteur, are essential in moving such technology forward."

The contract will support the clinical development and manufacturing of an adjuvanted recombinant pandemic vaccine.  This investigational pandemic vaccine will utilize the same recombinant technology as Sanofi's Flublok Quadrivalent (influenza vaccine). In addition, the contract will expand the site's role as a center of excellence for pandemic preparedness by adding both recombinant and adjuvant manufacturing alongside current egg-based manufacturing. Flublok Quadrivalent is the only recombinant protein-based influenza vaccine approved by FDA. This technology genetically matches hemagglutinin (HA) from each recommended vaccine virus; HA is the protein identified as key to stimulating immunity to influenza.

Source: Sanofi