The production rooms are not yet under sterile conditions, which allows the comings and goings of journalists, customers and guests of Sanofi, which inaugurated its Neuville-sur-Saône (Rhône) plant on Tuesday, September 10. Among them, Emmanuel Macron, the President of the Republic, came to see that France finally had a plant capable of producing vaccines in the event of a new pandemic. He praised “the strength and courage of the industrialist to convert this historic site into a plant of the future.”
The French pharmaceutical giant has invested 500 million euros in this 24,000 m² unit (including 240 million euros provided by the State from the envelope of future investments) built on an existing site. The project called Modulus dates from 2018, the first stone was laid in 2020.In two months, when the clean rooms and equipment are qualified by the health authorities, we will be able to produce four vaccines simultaneously.”explains Thomas Triomphe, director of the vaccine branch of Sanofi, who estimates the production capacity at 500 million doses per year in messenger RNA technologies and live attenuated viral vaccines.
Three vaccines on the way
«The heart of the plant’s reactor“, according to Anne-Laure Boulet, head of project management in Neuville-sur-Saône, is a large room nearly 200 meters long on the first floor of the building. At the entrance, a robot for disinfecting operators was designed with SMEs in the region. Upon entering, the machines are spaced out. Many are on wheels. “We have designed 34 independent production centres, the walls and most of the machines are removable, including the tanks, in order to reinforce modularity.“, describes Anne-Laure Bouchet.
This “revolutionary” modularity, according to Audrey Duval, president of Sanofi France, will make it possible to produce four vaccines simultaneously, which is unprecedented in the pharmaceutical industry, according to the manager. The objective is to be able to change production in 7 days maximum, “which is not obvious in the technology of vaccines from living organisms“, she emphasizes. To help production make such rapid transitions, the plant is equipped with 10,000 sensors, or 10 million data points per day. The primary objective is to meet drug traceability requirements, but also to provide real-time information on production and provide predictive maintenance.
The new building was covered with 2,500 m² of solar panels, helping to provide 10% of the site’s electricity consumption.
Sanofi currently has three vaccines in phase 3, the testing period that precedes marketing authorization. They could enter production in Neuville-sur-Saône in the coming months. These are an mRNA vaccine against bronchiolitis and viral infections; a vaccine against septicemia caused by the bacterium Escherichia coli for the elderly; and finally an intranasal vaccine for children aged 1 to 5 against respiratory diseases.
In Neuville-sur-Saone, Sanofi already produces vaccines against fever, rabies and measles, with a team of 160 employees. The new biomedicine unit will eventually employ 200 people. 135 jobs are planned for a total workforce that will reach 320 employees when production reaches cruising speed.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
