The pharma giant GSK is investing 70 million in Wavre to produce a vaccine against RSV, a respiratory virus

The “flagship” of the BW

The “vaccines” division currently represents 20% of the turnover of all of GSK’s activity, i.e. 39.5 billion euros in 2021. Emmanuel Amory considers them under a keyword, a neologism: “GloBELisation“, namely a globalization anchored in Belgium. GSK in figures, there are more than 20 different vaccines, and 21 candidate vaccines in development. The company claims that more than 90% of its vaccines offer protection greater than 90%. the Wavre site, GSK has 12 production sites around the world, and 17,000 employees, including 9,000 in Belgium alone, within a radius of 15 kilometers.

In Walloon Brabant, 3 sites are at the heart of the activities: in Rixensart, GSK focuses on research and development; in Wavre, on production and packaging; and in Gembloux, on distribution.

Alongside vaccines, the new boss insists on two other areas of development: immunotherapy and work on the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics.

And the Covid-19?

The first version of the vaccine against Covid-19 that GSK intended to develop with the French Sanofi will never see the light of day, for lack of sufficient effectiveness. The company is now betting on the second version, with the hope that it could become a “booster” that can be combined with previous vaccinations by other products and which, thanks to the use of an adjuvant, would be more effective on elderly populations.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.