Börje Haag has been appointed production manager at Active Biotech AB and will be taking up his position in February being based at SBL Vaccin in Solna, Sweden. He is presently Vice President, Production at Pharmacia & Upjohn's Strängnäs factory, employing the use of biotechnology in pharmaceutical production and has held production positions at a number of other companies, including ASTRA.
The appointment of Börje Haag secures for Active Biotech the competence required to meet our current and future international production requirements.
Recently, in October, an investment of SEK 30 million was made in SBL's production plants in order to ensure sufficient production capacity in preparation for the launch of the ETEC vaccine. SBL's new Cholera Vaccine, which is the only WHO approved cholera vaccine in the world, is also manufactured in the same production plant. The vaccine is marketed in Sweden and Norway as a travel vaccine under the Dukoral brand name and is also approved in these countries for the ETEC indication, tourist diarrhoea. Sales of Dukoral in Sweden have increased by greater than 80% in the past year.
The new production plant for SBL's IPV polio vaccine is currently producing the final validation batches before commencing full commercial production next year. The annual capacity is estimated to be approximately 7 million doses.
Lund, Sweden, 22 December 1999
Active Biotech AB (publ)
Sven Andréasson
President and CEO