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German Animal Vaccine Manufacturer Formally Applied to Set Up Taiwan Plant
The Council of Agriculture (COA) announced that Germany’s Lohmann Animal Health GmbH, the world’s fourth largest avian vaccine manufacturer, has formally applied to set up a plant in Taiwan, and has also signed strategic cooperation and technology exchange agreements, an important step to bring about a new era for Taiwan’s animal vaccine industry.
The COA has spent more than six years working on the investment and cooperation plan; Lohmann at last finalized the deal to build a plant in the Pingtung Agricultural Biotechnology Park.
A spokesperson for the COA said that the company’s investment will be carried out in three phases: the first stage will involve the construction of a manufacturing plant in accordance with the high manufacturing standards of the U.S. and the European Union. The facility will occupy 3 hectares in the Pingtung Agricultural Biotechnology Park .
Lohmann is expected to closely cooperate with Taiwan in the development of two kinds of new animal vaccines: the use of silkworm pupae as incubators for the baculovirus expression of subunit vaccine, and the use of E. coli for the production of highly-soluble, authentically-folded proteins for affordable subunit cocktail vaccines. These two technologies are expected to reach commercial production in a short time.
Officials of the COA said that Lohmann will cooperate with local industries and institutions and will take the advantage of Taiwan’s excellent R & D, technical manpower, location and transportation infrastructure in order to provide vaccines for the Asian market, as well as to promote Taiwan-made animal vaccines worldwide.
The value of the worldwide animal vaccine market is over US$ 4 billion. Officials of the COA pointed out that this cooperative venture will be a milestone for the industry; it is expected to attract additional large producers of animal vaccines and increase the demand for technical manpower in Taiwan, as well as to promote related fields such as the development of testing reagents, production of new and improved vaccine adjuvants and SPF egg-based animal vaccine development.
