Annual Report 2003 Aventis - Sanofi

Production and Manufacturing
Meeting the Challenges of Insulin Supply
Millions of people around the world rely on insulin
to manage their diabetes – an illness that WHO
statistics predict will affect more than 300 million
people worldwide by 2025. As a leading global developer
and producer of innovative diabetes therapies,
Aventis is helping improve the daily lives of
diabetes patients all over the world.
In 2003, Aventis took its insulin production capabilities
to new heights. In a project orchestrated
by Aventis Industrial Operations (IO), the company
inaugurated the world’s most modern biotech insulin
production plant in Frankfurt, Germany in September.
The e 160 million facility produces the active
ingredient for Lantus (insulin glargine). The
plant will be able to meet the insulin needs of more
than two million people with diabetes worldwide.
The Frankfurt plant, which has created 220 jobs,
is just one part of the company’s insulin development
strategy. A further e 100 million is currently
being invested in a new Lantus manufacturing facility,
now under construction. When it opens, this
building will manufacture the fi nished Lantus products
from the active ingredients facility.
Inauguration of the new Lantus plant
in Frankfurt, Germany
The production of insulin has come a long way
since Hoechst, an Aventis predecessor company, became
the fi rst company in Europe to manufacture
insulin around 80 years ago. While today’s insulins
are produced in large volumes through biotechnological
processes, in the early days, insulin was derived
from cow and pig pancreases and was produced
in limited amounts.
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