Honeywell collaborates with Walvax Biotech to automate COVID-19 vaccine plant
Honeywell announced its successful work with Walvax Biotechnology Co. Ltd. in providing automation control solutions to achieve smart and digitized vaccine production for China's first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine production plant.
Utilizing Honeywell’s intelligent plant technology and experience, the collaboration will enable the digital production and operation of the plant, promote the digitalization of the vaccine industry and realize the goal of building an intelligent plant.
To help Walvax Biotech’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccine plant achieve a high level of safe, reliable intelligent operations, Honeywell will deploy batch process control as well as building management solution (BMS) systems and energy management solution (EMS) systems in the plant to promote quality and consistency, while also optimizing production and accelerating time to market. In and addition, this project enables production management visualization by monitoring assets and processes through the employment of technologies such as digital twins and dynamic modeling.
“The completion and delivery of Walvax Biotech’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccine plant is a key step in the industrialization of mRNA vaccines," said Huang Zhen, chairman of Yuxi Walvax Biotech Co., Ltd. “Working with Honeywell means we can achieve superior production, operations and management to ultimately provide world-class, high-quality production conditions for COVID-19 vaccines, jointly advance the digitalization and intelligent development of the vaccine production industry and build a state-of-art vaccine production base, propelling Walvax Biotech to become a top-tier enterprise in vaccine R&D and production.”
Shawn Opatka, vice president, life sciences, Honeywell Process Solutions, added: “Providing digital and intelligent solutions for Walvax Biotech’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccine plant is another important achievement for Honeywell in expanding our reach throughout the Life Sciences industry. Honeywell’s automation control and smart-connected plant solutions optimize plant manufacturing operations in terms of production, quality, compliance and operations to realize sustainable, full life-cycle management.”
Walvax Biotech’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccine plant is China’s first COVID-19 mRNA vaccine industrial base. Walvax Biotech is a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the research and development, production, and sales of vaccines, blood products and other biological drugs in China. The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, jointly developed by Walvax Biotech and Suzhou Abogen Biosciences (AbogenBio), recently obtained the approval of Phase III clinical trials issued by the drug regulatory authorities of Mexico, Indonesia and Nepal pharmaceutical supervision departments, respectively, indicating that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine has entered the phase III clinical trial stage in the three aforementioned countries.
