GSK flu vaccine facility in Quebec is nearly completed

QUEBEC CITY, Canada GlaxoSmithKline said that it is near completion of its Quebec City manufacturing facility, used to develop the company’s influenza vaccine.

After a two-year—and $199 million—investment to upgrade the manufacturing site, the location will increase the capacity of vaccine doses to 75 million per year, the company said. The expansion has also given way to providing this facility, and existing ones, new equipment and other innovative technologies to assure efficient production.

The company has also doubled the size of its vaccine workforce in Quebec City since January 2006.

“[This] announcement reinforces the key role that both Quebec and Canada play in GSK’s global vaccine business,” said Michel Baijot, vice president of Worldwide Strategic Alliances and Business Development, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, the company’s vaccine division. “Through this investment, Quebec and Canada will have an impact on global health by supporting countries in their influenza pandemic planning.”

According to GSK, the company supplies about 75% of the Canadian government’s seasonal flu vaccine purchases and will also provide Canada with a pandemic vaccine in the event of an influenza pandemic.