Microbix announced the completion of an agreement with the Chinese government for the construction of a new influenza vaccine manufacturing facility in the country.
The plant is planned to be located in China’s Central Hunan province.
The plant is estimated to be worth C$ 200 and is scheduled to be operational by 2013. The plant is to be jointly funded by Microbix and the Hunan provincial government. The government will provide around C$ 100 million along with the sum incurred for the production of the initial 100 million doses. The remainder will be borne by Microbix through its licensing partners.
The plant will primarily produce vaccines for the Chinese market but the company may also export them depending on the magnitude of domestic demand. At present, China holds the capacity of vaccinating around 2 per cent of the target population. It has been planned to be increased to 20 per cent, or 400 million doses a year. The facility will have the capacity of increasing the total world production of vaccines by around 20 per cent.
This goal would be achievable by the new plant through the adoption of Microbix’s technology, Virusmax. It would increase the yield of the vaccine which is usually discarded after being attached to the debris in the allantoic fluid of the chick embryo. It will therefore help produce more dosages in a shorter period of time.
