A new production site for the pharmaceutical company Sanofi was inaugurated in Neuville-sur-Saône on Tuesday, September 10. A factory presented as “futuristic” for its new modulation techniques.
Inaugurated with great fanfare on Tuesday, September 10, in the presence of Emmanuel Macron, the new Sanofi site in Neuville-sur-Saône, on the outskirts of Lyon, is intended to be a “futuristic factory”.
A nickname justified, according to the president of the French branch of the pharmaceutical company, by its new capacity to “produce four vaccines on all their technologies in parallel (inactivated vaccines, messenger RNA)”, Charles Wolf rejoiced this Wednesday, on the set of BFM Lyon. “Technologically it is a major advance, it has never been done.”
The goals that accompany this new site are the possibility of supplying more vaccines more quickly and “producing all the technologies that are being developed to prevent more diseases and improve public health.”
This new site, which will concentrate the equivalent of 34 standardized mini-factories, will make it possible to make “rapid changes in production capacities” and “rapidly increase the production of a vaccine in the event of a pandemic”, assures the group.
An innovative modulation
Powered by artificial intelligence, used to “optimize all production flows”, the plant is also at the forefront thanks to its modulation. “Before, it took several months or even years to switch a building from one vaccine to another, now we’re talking about a few weeks,” emphasizes the director of Sanofi France.
The production area will thus be able to be reconfigured so that its size can adapt to the different processes, reports Anne-Laure Boulet, responsible for project management at Sanofi. A “revolution” that is capable of adapting “in one week” for a new product.
“Until now, on our pharmaceutical industrial sites, a production building was dedicated to one product. Here, we have an environment that can be adapted to all our new products,” explains Annabel Villedieu, responsible for product industrialization for the firm.
The plant will be operational by the end of 2025, after qualification of the facilities and validation of the manufacturing processes. Today, the plant is in a “key” phase awaiting approvals from the authorities. Thanks to this site, the company aims to become the “leader in immunology”, assures Charles Wolf.
An ambition that Emmanuel Macron welcomed, during his visit on Tuesday, September 10. “Here you are at the heart of a world first. We are putting Sanofi at the heart of the international ambition of what we want to do for health and 21st century production for our country,” declared the President of the Republic on Tuesday.
A twin factory in Singapore
This 16th production site of the company in France, a site “unique in the world”, was based on the same model as the one currently under construction in Singapore, which should be completed by 2026.
Four years of work and a budget of 500 million euros were necessary. 160 new jobs are expected on site.
However, about twenty kilometers from this new site, at the Sanofi factory in Marcy-l’Étoile, the climate is slightly different in the face of the threats of 265 job cuts which, according to union officials interviewed by our colleagues at Le Progrès, should be effective by 2027.
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