Novartis Vaccines’ ambitious plans for the Northwest

A Merseyside bio-manufacturing facility has just completed its most successful production campaign - supplying over 40 million doses of influenza vaccine to both the US and the UK.

The Novartis Vaccines plant on the Boulevard Industry Park, in Speke, is the UK’s sole producer of injectable influenza vaccine.

In addition, it is one of the largest producers of its kind in the world.

The company has invested more than £126m at the site in recent years and has embarked on a ‘technology transfer’ project to bring in a more efficient manufacturing process to further increase capacity and improve competitiveness.

The bulk of the investment has gone on building and fitting out a new, highly automated primary production building to manufacture bulk influenza antigen.

Occupying 22,300 square metres - the size of three football pitches - the plant is currently in its first full year of production after its commissioning and start-up was accelerated in 2009 so it could play a part in helping to combat the 2009/10 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.

Additionally, trials are now taking place in preparation for the transfer into the building from Italy of an alternative vaccine product which could potentially double the building’s capacity and reduce production costs.

The transfer is being undertaken to establish the Liverpool site as the ‘Novartis Centre of Excellence’ in egg-based influenza vaccine production.

The company also intends it to become a ‘cost-leader’ in what is becoming an increasingly competitive business.

John Sullivan, Head of Site, said: “We use around 100 million eggs a year in producing seasonal influenza vaccine and the alternative process we’re bringing in can potentially double the amount of antigen we can extract from each egg.

“This will enable us to compete much more effectively in a situation in which flu vaccine manufacturing capacity has grown around the world to the extent that supply is exceeding demand.

“In addition, the alternative process will enable us to produce antigen for different and newer vaccines, including adjuvanted vaccines which are more effective in population groups with reduced immune systems, such as the elderly.

“Adjuvanted vaccines can also remain effective in stimulating an immune response in lower dose volumes, which will increase availability during pandemic situations.”

During a manufacturing ‘campaign’, hundreds of thousands of eggs from farms all over the UK arrive every day at the company’s new egg processing facility.

The eggs are washed, sanitised and incubated before being transferred to the main production building where influenza seed material is injected into them.

After the base vaccine material grows in the eggs over a number of days, it is extracted and the ‘live’ virus is inactivated.

The material then goes through an extensive sequence of centrifugation and filtration steps to create ‘purified vaccine antigen’.

Automation features of the plant include self-guiding vehicles to move eggs and materials and a Process Control System which manages many of the process steps.

The site manufactures a new ‘product’ - or vaccine - every year because the prevailing strains of influenza are constantly evolving.

The World Health Organisation’s global network of surveillance centres constantly track the virus changes and each year determine which of them should be included in the new vaccine formulation.

The Liverpool site currently employs around 700 people, including process and chemical engineers and scientists in quality and technology development roles.

The plant is a significant contributor to the UK’s balance of trade with around £320m of overseas earnings in 2009.

In addition, the site spends around £130m with mainly UK suppliers and injects over £40m a year into the local and national economy.

The Novartis plants lies at the heart of the North West Biomanufacturing corridor - the largest in Europe - with neighbours including Eli Lilly, MedImmune and the National Biomanufacturing Centre.