Influenza Vaccines for the Global Market

The history of the GSK site in Dresden goes back a long way: on October 17, 1911, the Sächsische Serumwerk und Institut für Bakteriotherapie was entered in the commercial register. Just eight years later, almost 80 drugs and vaccines were produced in the heart of Dresden. Since the takeover by SmithKline Beecham in 1992 (now GlaxoSmithKline - GSK), around one billion people worldwide have received flu vaccines "Made in Germany" from GSK. This was made possible by investments totalling more than 350 million euros, which have steadily driven modernization and capacity expansion and increased production in Dresden more than fivefold to date.

Today, around 750 employees in the Saxon state capital produce over 50 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine every year for over 40 countries worldwide. In spring and summer for the northern hemisphere, in winter for the southern hemisphere. The composition of the seasonal, tetravalent (i.e. directed against four virus strains) flu vaccine changes every year and is determined centrally by the World Health Organization (WHO). But that's not all: the Dresden plant can produce pandemic and pre-pandemic flu vaccines at short notice in an emergency. To this end, we have concluded a framework agreement with the European Commission's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) for influenza pandemic preparedness in 2022, which regulates the production and supply of 85 million doses of our pandemic influenza vaccine for 11 European countries.