SPEKE’S Novartis plant is now in full swing producing swine flu jabs, after the early completion of its conventional flu vaccine run.
The 600-strong workforce at the Speke Boulevard pharmaceutical site will be producing millions of doses of the H1N1 strain of flu as part of a $979m contract with the US government.
A spokesman at the Basel headquarters of the Swiss drugs giant declined to divulge how many H1N1 doses Speke will make.
But he said the site had produced 27m doses of its conventional flu vaccine, Fluvirin, for the US market a month ahead of schedule so that the lines could switch to swine flu production.
Novartis spokesman Eric Althoff praised the Speke workforce, saying: “We started delivery of Fluvirin at the end of July, compared with August, and completed production by the end of September.
“Normally, delivery continues into November, so they have done quite a good job.”
He said there were no fixed production targets for Speke’s H1N1 output because it was linked to production at other Novartis centres throughout Europe. Earlier this year, the group revealed it had begun cell-based production of the H1N1 treatment in Europe.
The process is quicker than the conventional egg-based system used at Speke.
Novartis chief executive Andrin Oswald revealed that initial H1N1 production has been hampered by the low yield from the seed strain provided by the World Health Organisation.
But he said production has switched to a new, higher yielding seed strain which will allow a higher volume of deliveries later in the year.
In 2004, Speke produced more than 45m Fluvirin doses which had to be scrapped at a cost of £150m after contamination was detected on the production line.
Following rigorous checks, the plant regained its production licence, but manufacturing levels have been significantly lower.
Mr Althoff said the 27m doses for the US market were in line with expectations for the current flu season.
“We had anticipated demand for the year of about 30m doses of Fluvirin, but 27m is similar to the previous year.”
