Sanofi invests in new vaccine production facility in Singapore

SANOFI is investing €400m (US$479m) over five years to build a new vaccine production facility in Singapore.

The new vaccine centre is being developed in partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). It will mainly supply Asia and complement Sanofi’s existing facilities in Europe and North America.

The facility will be able to produce new vaccines quickly in response to future pandemics. The project is currently in the design phase and is being designed to have a central unit which contains several fully-digitalised modules. These will allow the simultaneous production of up to four vaccines, compared to only one in current sites. The facility will be able to use different vaccine manufacturing technology platforms based on different cell types.

Construction is expected to begin in Q3 this year and the facility is due to be fully operational in Q1 in 2026. The site is designed to be carbon-neutral and to reduce resource consumption and waste production.

Thomas Triomphe, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Sanofi Pasteur, said: “As a major healthcare player, it’s our responsibility to act and to meet the unprecedented growing demands for vaccines. 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. We are very pleased by the strong collaboration with the Singapore Economic Development Board to achieve this exciting milestone.”

Beh Swan Gin, Chairman of EDB, said: “Sanofi’s decision to locate its first-in-Asia digitally-enabled vaccine production centre in Singapore, to supply markets in the region and beyond, is an endorsement of Singapore’s position as a leading centre for advanced manufacturing. EDB will continue to promote digitalisation, automation and innovation to transform the manufacturing sector and create good jobs for Singaporeans.”

Sanofi is currently developing a Covid-19 vaccine in partnership with GSK. The vaccine candidate entered Phase 2 trials in February this year and is expected to progress to Phase 3 in Q2 if the Phase 2 trial is successful. Sanofi has also started development work against new variants of Covid-19.