Sanofi Pasteur offered a sneak peak of its soon-to-be launched international vaccine innovation center in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area during the fourth China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai.

The first of its kind in the world, the GBA International Vaccine Innovation Center aims to create a vaccine ecosystem that connects the government, industry and public, and serves to foster academic and industry dialogues as well as incubate joint innovation on vaccines.

"With the acceleration of vaccine innovation worldwide, we hope to build a bridge between China and the world for vaccine innovation cooperation in the Greater Bay Area, while increasing investment in innovation," said Mike Zhang, head of Sanofi Pasteur (Greater) China.

"We aim to introduce more innovative vaccines, more leading technologies, and more knowledge and experience into the mainland through the Greater Bay Area, a key hub for China's opening-up and development."

In recent years, Sanofi Pasteur has actively taken part in the economic development of the Greater Bay Area, establishing China's first and only foreign vaccine factories, promoting the immunization planning strategy model in China and building an academic exchange platform for international vaccines.

As part of efforts to fulfil its "New Health Formula" vision, the French vaccine giant has during the ongoing CIIE inked partnerships with Peking University to raise the capacity of public health professionals and improve disease detection capacity for respiratory infections at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention laboratories.

Together with local partner Olive Branch Health, Sanofi Pasteur is displaying an updated version of its smart unmanned vaccination cabin called Miao Xiaobai.

The facility, which provides online vaccination registration, intelligent pre-inspection, and unmanned vaccination, can reduce the complexity of the vaccination process, improve vaccination efficiency and accessibility, and provide large-scale vaccine support.

The company is also showcasing three innovative vaccines at the CIIE.