New Facility Open for Innovative Poultry Vaccine Technology

THE NETHERLANDS - Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health announces the opening of its new Sphereon vaccine manufacturing facility in Boxmeer.
calendar icon 27 January 2009
clock icon 3 minute read

The facility was opened by Gerda Verburg, Dutch minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality as part of her visit to the Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health headquarters in Boxmeer yesterday. The new facility, featuring in-house developed manufacturing technology, adds to what is already the largest vaccine R&D and production site in the Dutch pharmaceutical industry.

The innovative Sphereon technology freeze-dries live poultry vaccines to small, highly soluble particles (spheres) instead of the traditional vaccine cake in a glass bottle. Sphereon vaccines are packaged in light-weight, easy-to-open aluminium cups in convenient dose sizes. Dissolving the particles is fast and convenient for administration of the vaccine via water, spray or eye-drop. The ground-breaking concept has been patented by Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health and improves both the manufacturing as well as the application of vaccines.

The major advantages of the Sphereon vaccine technology are the easy and quick dissolution, hygienic application, availability of high-dosage presentations and large batch sizes. These advantages all contribute to enhanced convenience and reduced risk of inadvertent vaccine exposure.

"We are all very excited about the introduction of the innovative Sphereon technology in the poultry vaccine segment. Biological R&D usually focuses on the development of vaccines against new disease agents, but with the Sphereon project we have actually re-thought the whole concept of vaccine production, away from the traditional freeze-dried cake in a glass vial. The resulting product has major advantages for the poultry industry in terms of convenience and safety while still relying on the well proven superior quality of our poultry vaccine portfolio," said Ruud Aerdts, head of the Global Poultry Business Unit.

Jan van Raaij, chairman Animal Health Operations in the Netherlands, explained, “The Sphereon facility demonstrates the continuous and significant investments in advanced technologies and facilities for research, development and manufacturing that are being made at our Biosciences Center Boxmeer.”

© 2000 - 2024 - Global Ag Media. All Rights Reserved | No part of this site may be reproduced without permission.