WuXi Biologics announced that WuXi Vaccines, its joint venture with Shanghai Hile Bio-technology, has entered into a strategic partnership with a global vaccine leader and signed a 20-year vaccine manufacturing contract valued approximately $3 billion, pursuant to which WuXi Vaccines will build a dedicated facility and supply commercial vaccine products for the global market.

Under the contract, WuXi Vaccines will build an integrated vaccine manufacturing facility including drug substance manufacturing (DS), drug product manufacturing (DP), Manufacture Science and Technology Labs (MS&T) as well as Quality Control labs (QC). The facility will be dedicated to manufacture one of its partner’s vaccine products for the global market. The new facility is expected to be operational in 2022.

In Nov 2019, WuXi Vaccines announced $240 million investment to build the new vaccine manufacturing facility in Ireland. The facility is located within the WuXi Biologics Campus adjacent to the “Factory of the Future” biologics drug substance manufacturing facility which is scheduled for commercial manufacturing in 2021.

“This is a historic moment for WuXi Biologics and WuXi Vaccines as well as for the global vaccine industry. Due to process complexity, extensive analytic testing and rigorous regulatory standards, vaccines are difficult to manufacture and process and quality control are extremely critical for the quality of the product. This partnership with a global vaccine leader to exclusively manufacture a vaccine for the global market, first of its kind in the industry, is a further testimony to the technical strengths and premier quality demonstrated by WuXi Vaccines,” said Dr. Chris Chen, CEO of WuXi Biologics and Chairman of WuXi Vaccines.