Sanofi to invest 432.4 million dollars in Canada vaccine facility

PARIS: French healthcare group Sanofi is investing 350 million euros ($432.4 million) in a Canadian vaccine facility, which the drugmaker said would help it meet growing demand in this area.

Sanofi's new investment will finance the construction of a new state-of-the-art vaccine manufacturing facility at the Sanofi Pasteur Canadian headquarters in Toronto, Ontario.

The new facility would allow its Sanofi Pasteur division to meet the growing demand of five-component acellular pertussis (5-acP) antigen, the company added.

Sanofi sealed two major takeovers at the start of 2018, buying hemophilia specialist Bioverativ for $11.6 billion and acquiring Ablynx, which is developing a prized experimental drug for a rare blood disorder, for 3.9 billion euros ($4.8 billion).

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Sunil Nair)