Gov. Perry Helps Dedicate Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Facility

Press Release

Gov. Rick Perry today participated in the site dedication for the Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Facility, part of the Texas A&M Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (Texas A&M CIADM). This $91 million, state-of-the-art influenza-vaccine manufacturing facility, a partnership between Texas A&M University and GlaxoSmithKline, will help protect against infectious disease and the threat of bioterrorism.

"Providing true security involves more than just guarding our borders; we need to prepare for all types of threats, whether natural or from those who would do us harm," Gov. Perry said. "This facility will help to combat such threats by quickly developing and manufacturing life-saving vaccines to guard against the worst diseases imaginable. This facility will save lives."

Today's ceremony builds on a series of significant measures the state has undertaken in the last decade to bring Texas to the forefront of biotech research and development, including creating the Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine at Texas A&M University and the National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing. The 100,000 square foot facility will serve as the anchor of the Texas A&M CIADM, one of three public-private partnership centers established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to increase America's ability to respond to a variety of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks or threats, as well as naturally occurring infectious diseases.

"This center is important for our nation, but also evidences a new paradigm for how academic health science centers must transform health by forging novel partnerships with the federal government and leveraging the expertise of world-leading commercial partners, such as GSK," said Dr. Brett Giroir, CEO of Texas A&M Health Science Center. "Texas A&M Health Science Center will continue to pioneer new pathways forward - this is the only way that unmet medical needs, locally and globally, will be addressed, and access to quality care can be achieved for all."

"Texas A&M has a long and proud tradition of dedicated service to our nation," said Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp. "This facility, and the Texas A&M CIADM in which it is housed, builds upon that tradition and helps put Texas A&M at the forefront of translational research and development so that research discoveries will advance to the field faster to save lives."

Once the Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Facility is operational, it will be able to produce up to 50 million influenza vaccine doses within four months. The facility will also develop vaccines aimed at targeting pandemic influenza strains. The Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Facility is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

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