The building on a Welsh industrial estate where millions of
IT may not look like much, but this unassuming warehouse on a Welsh industrial estate is where millions of coronavirus vaccines are being made to distribute across the UK.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the site back in November and he said the lab could provide “salvation for humanity” .
The Wrexham plant is able to produce around 300 million doses of the vaccine each year, and has been producing 150,000 phials a day for months in readiness for rolling out the vaccine across the UK.
The CP Pharmaceuticals lab will carry out the “fill and finish” stage of the manufacturing process. This involves dispensing the vaccine into phials ready for it to be sent out across the country.
The 18-month agreement with parent company Wockhardt announced back in August.
Speaking then, Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart said: “This agreement demonstrates the importance of Welsh manufacturers in the UK’s fight against coronavirus, highlighting once again the strengths of working together across the UK to combat the pandemic.
“Securing this manufacturing was capacity means that safe and effective vaccines, produced in Wales, will potentially be distributed rapidly to people across the UK.”
Global pharmaceutical company Wockhardt is one of the largest suppliers to the NHS, and has had a site in Wrexham for more than 20 years.
It employs more than 400 people who work at the 612,000sq ft hightech factory.
Kate Bingham, chairman of the Vaccines Taskforce, said in August: “Never before have we needed to find and manufacture a vaccine at this speed and scale in order to protect the UK population.
“We have made significant progress in securing a diverse portfolio of potential vaccines and treatments for Covid-19, adding a fourth vaccine candidate from GSK and Sanofi earlier this week. However, discovering a successful vaccine is only part of the solution, we also need to be able to manufacture it.
“Fill and finish is a critical step in the process. The agreement with Wockhardt will boost our capability to ensure that from the moment a successful vaccine is identified we will be able to produce the quantities of vaccine required.”