Flu | Vaccine plant in Dresden will be closed

It was only in 2007 that a new building costing over 100 million euros was inaugurated in the Dresden vaccine factory. Photo: imago/momentphoto/Killig Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is also responsible for the latest bad news for the industrial state of Saxony. a certain complicity. The US Secretary of Health is an avowed vaccine skeptic and has, among other things, abolished mandatory vaccinations for military personnel. This had a negative impact on sales at GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) vaccine plant in Dresden; Sales of a flu vaccine produced there for the US market collapsed. That was one of several factors that now led to a decision of considerable consequence. The company, the workforce was recently informed, wants to stop production by the summer of 2027 and completely wind down the plant by 2028. The production of flu vaccines is to be concentrated in Canada in the future.

The end not only has serious consequences for the 641 employees who will lose their jobs. It would also be a blow to European health policy. The European Parliament is currently working on a “Critical Medicines Act” (CMA). The aim of the law is to strengthen the production of medicines and vaccines in Europe in order to reduce dependence on third countries. Lessons are being learned from the corona pandemic. The Dresden vaccine factory is “the only large producer in Saxony and one of the few in Europe,” says Stefan Hartmann, economic policy spokesman for the Left in the state parliament. The fact that it should now be wound down is a "European warning signal," says the Saxon CDU MEP Oliver Schenk: "We cannot talk about pharmaceutical sovereignty and security of supply and at the same time lose existing production capacities and decades of know-how in Europe." The Dresden SPD member of the Bundestag Rasha Nasr adds that giving up such a location is "not a casual business decision." Rather, it also affects “our country’s strategic interests.”

The factory, which is located in the middle of Dresden just a few minutes' walk from Brühl's Terrace and where vaccines against flu as well as those against hepatitis are produced, looks back on more than 100 years of history. In 1908, the entrepreneur Karl August Lingner, inventor of the Odol mouthwash, set up a bacteriological department in his laboratory. This became the Saxon Serum Works in 1911. Vaccines against cholera and typhus, and later also against tuberculosis and syphilis, were produced there. In the GDR, the company, which was only nationalized in 1972, was the most important provider of vaccines. In 1992, the trust sold the plant to the British pharmaceutical company SmithKlineBeecham, which has been trading under the name GlaxoSmithKline since 2000 following a merger.

“Anyone who presents an entire site and 641 employees with a fait accompli is acting in the Wild West manner.”

A few years later, the owner had invested over 100 million euros in a new building that met the strictest security precautions and was inaugurated in 2007. On the 111th anniversary of the Dresden site in 2022, GSK calculated that the vaccines produced there since 1992 had "protected over a billion people from disease."

Recently, however, business has been worse. The reasons are varied. The “Sächsische Zeitung” reports that GSK wants to switch to a different technology than the one used in Dresden, in which the virus is propagated in chicken eggs. The Dresden plant required up to 100 million eggs annually, which is a significant cost factor. In addition, the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) recently favored influenza vaccines other than those manufactured in Dresden, which is why fewer of them were ordered in Germany. As a result of the decline in sales, there were already internal savings targets; The employees had to reduce their working hours and thus their salaries.

The fact that it is now supposed to end completely is hitting the workforce unprepared and hard. The works council explained that they would fight “unitedly, loudly and decisively” for jobs. The IG BCE union was also shocked. “We are deeply affected, but we will not stand idly by,” explains Philipp Zirzow, district manager for Saxony. He pointed out that the plant was bound by collective agreements and was part of a social partnership in the chemical industry. "But the decision and the way of proceeding have nothing to do with partnership," he added: "Anyone who presents an entire site and 641 employees with a fait accompli is acting in the Wild West manner." The union is calling on the company, the state and the federal government to negotiate.

Saxony's Economics Minister Dirk Panter (SPD) also advocates for such discussions, and he says he was "surprised" by the decision to close. The state government will now seek discussions with company management and employee representatives "to clarify the reasons for the decision and possible scope for action."

From Stefan Hartmann's point of view, the reasons are obvious. The left-wing MP said that he was also "stunned" by the decision to close, which would open up "a new, wide crack in the economic foundation of our country." The reason, however, is that “capitalist companies are only interested in profit.” Hartmann is calling on the state government to step up prevention campaigns “so that there will be greater demand for vaccinations in the future.”

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