Sanofi-aventis launches vaccine facility in France

Sanofi-aventis has launched a brand new facility in France to produce doses of a vaccine against dengue fever.

The manufacturing centre is located in Neuville-sur-Saone and some 350 million euros (313.9 million pounds) has been invested in it.

It is expected the hub will create 200 jobs and be equipped with completely state-of-the-art technology to create 100 million doses of the vaccine.

Neuville-sur-Saone is situated close to Lyon and the city’s senator and mayor Gerard Collomb joined executives from Sanofi-aventis to celebrate the beginning of construction.

Christopher A Viehbacher, chief executive officer, said the facility represented the largest investment by the company in its history.

“It illustrates our commitment to providing solutions to unmet medical needs such as dengue – a disease that potentially puts almost half of the world’s population at risk,? he added.

NHS guidelines state the only way to currently prevent dengue fever is to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. The disease is particularly common in south and south-east Asia.