French firm to launch first non-Japanese Hib vaccine in Japan

Written by Writer on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

French firm to launch first non-Japanese Hib vaccine in Japan

HONK KONG (Kyodo) A meningitis vaccine manufactured by a France-based company will be delivered to Japan’s private health-care market by December, the company’s top official said in Hong Kong on Monday.

“It will be the first vaccine licensed by a multinational firm (that is being used) in Japan,” Wayne Pisano, president of Sanofi Pasteur, said in reference to the vaccine for Hib — Haemophilus influenzae type b infection.

Pisano said the vaccine has been used in other countries, but requirements in Japan against vaccines are strict and take a long time to get final approval.

According to the World Health Organization, Hib is a bacterium estimated to be responsible for some 3 million serious illnesses and an estimated 386,000 deaths per year worldwide.

The infectious disease mainly affects children under the age of 5, chiefly through meningitis and pneumonia, the WHO said.

The Japanese authorities have received the first batch of vaccines, Pisano said, adding that about 500,000 shots of the French vaccines will be available each year.

To save on labor cost and expand vaccination usage in China, the company is also building a 70 million euro ($95.2 million) manufacturing base in southern China’s Shenzhen, in addition to its filling and packaging facility already in operation.

The new site, to start operation by 2012, will focus on making influenza vaccines with an initial annual capacity of 25 million doses.

Pisano also said the Shenzhen production facility could be turned into producing pandemic vaccines, such as one for human infections of the often deadly bird flu virus H5N1, “in a matter of weeks.”