Sanofi recently opened a vaccine manufacturing plant in Toronto. [Image courtesy of Sanofi]
The facility officially opened on May 30. According to Sanofi, the new plant significantly increases its capacity to meet growing demand in Canada and around the world for pediatric and adult vaccines for pertussis (whooping cough), diphtheria and tetanus. The vaccines will go to 60 markets globally.
The Toronto plant represents an investment of $800 million Canadian (equal to about $593 million U.S.), which included support from federal, provincial and local governments in Canada. The facility employs 200 highly skilled workers, representing about a tenth of Sanofi’s workforce the country.
“This investment is representative of the incredible transformation that is underway across Sanofi’s global network, as we work to modernize our operations and accelerate our journey to Industry leading performance, while reducing the environmental footprint of our operations,” Brendan O’Callaghan, Sanofi’s EVP of manufacturing and supply, said in a news release.
“We are building the capacities and capabilities we will need to support the impressive growth of our commercial portfolio, while preparing for the exciting wave of new Product Launches to emerge from our pipeline over the coming years.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended the grand opening. “Vaccines save lives. That’s why we’ll be producing a lot more of them in Canada, including flu vaccines,” he said. “Sanofi’s two new facilities in Toronto employ hundreds of highly skilled staff, protect the health and wellbeing of Canadians, and give our scientists, innovators, and researchers a fair chance to succeed.”
Tell Us What You Think!