JASO cranes at Viralgen’s headquarters where the MBG and Harvard’s Covid-19 vaccine will be manufactured

20 / 09 / 2021

The company Viralgen from San Sebastian will produce on a large scale the vaccine against Covid-19 that is being developed by Massachusetts General Brigham Hospital and Harvard University.

Viralgen, a leading pharmaceutical laboratory producing viral vectors for gene therapy, is one of the three companies and the only one outside the US that will manufacture this Covid-19 vaccine. Production will take place at the new plant that is being built in the Gipuzkoa Science and Technology Park (Miramón). 

The plant will be made up of three buildings which, thanks to their design, as well as housing the latest technology, will allow for the flexibility and scalability required for this type of project.

Solution

Work commenced in January this year with three JASO Top Line J110N cranes being made available to the construction company Altuna y Uria. These cranes have the appropriate load capacity for a project like this, as the 55m of jib it allows loads up to 1.8t. The possibility offered by these models to combine different tower sections is also key to reach high free-standing heights.

Viralgen’s new headquarters will become the first plant in Spain to produce gene therapy drugs for diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, and one of the most modern in Europe.

The work is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.