GlaxoSmithKline Invests in French Production Facility

London (Sept. 29)-GlaxoSmithKline (GSK, Brentford, UK, www.gsk.com) will invest more than € 500 million in a vaccine-manufacturing plant in St-Amand-Les-Eaux, France. The investment will expand the company’s production capacity in formulation, filling, freeze-drying, and packaging in response to increasing worldwide demand for pediatric and adult vaccines.

The St-Amand-Les-Eaux plant will manufacture GSK’s vaccines for meningitis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae. In addition, the site will help produce many of GSK’s developmental vaccines such as “Cervarix,” a vaccine against human papilloma virus with potential to prevent cervical cancer, and a modified influenza vaccine.

The French facility will include a lyophilization plant for stabilizing vaccines. The location also will be equipped with a liquid plant for filling syringes and vials, a packing plant and warehouse, a power plant, and quality-control laboratories.

The St-Amand-Les-Eaux facility is the latest investment in GSK’s international vaccines industrial network and follows expansions and acquisitions of vaccine-production sites in Dresden, Germany; Marietta, Pennsylvania; and Singapore. The French plant is expected to be operational in 2011.