Thursday, October 16, 2008

Sanofi-Aventis will Open up Chinese Influenza Vaccine Market

Sanofi-AventisFrench pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis hopes that after the company's the pharmaceutical factory in Shenzhen officially put into operation in 2012, the company could sell 2.5 million seasonal influenza vaccine in China.

Wayne Pisano is the head of Sanofi-Pasteur, the vaccine branch of Sanofi-Aventis, said Monday that China each year the crowd of take against seasonal influenza viruses was only 2% of the total population, only a small fraction of the vaccination rate of Europe and the United States.

In Hong Kong, Pisano said that in Europe and North America, the vaccination rate is about 20% to 40%. Because the use of new vaccine production facilities in China, Sanofi-Aventishave will raise the capacity to 25 million immediately, and as China's demand increase, we still have a lot of production space.

Sanofi-Aventis invests 7,000,000 euros on the pharmaceutical factory. In the process of vaccine production, the factory will made the use of antigen. This antigen will be nurtured by eggs.

When be asked in view of China's food safety problem, how the companies to ensure that product quality. Pisano replied that we have to adopt uniform quality standards, the quality of products and equipments in Shenzhen will be same as France and the United States.

Pisano said Sanofi-Aventis have selected 50 candidates for chicken plant, and will select the final two can meet its quality standards.

Originally Posted: China Business Daily
Author: Angulo Fu