Launched in 2024, Virbac's Bio Academy provides training in the various pharmaceutical industry professions involved in vaccine production: formulation of active ingredients, bulk formulation, aseptic filling, visual inspection and secondary packaging. It aims to develop skills in biotechnology, cell, viral and bacterial culture, against a backdrop of good manufacturing practice (GMP) and product sterility control.

"Vaccine production involves specific skills that are difficult to find externally and require a long in-house training programme. The idea is to develop our fast-track learning culture by encouraging autonomy", stresses Anaïs Herrero, head of the Bio Academy.

A ‘winter school’ for new employees

Among the various training formats on offer, the first ‘winter school’ brought together around a hundred people in January on this theme. Aimed at both new employees and experts in the Biology sector, this annual one-week programme also aims to spread a uniform quality culture for sterile forms, in order to meet the more stringent GMP requirements. 

It comprises four short, fun and participative modules, combining theoretical input and immersive activities. The aim is to enable teams to take a step back from their day-to-day activities, understand the meaning behind each aseptic operation and develop their knowledge of products and processes, so as to improve quality and productivity along the vaccine manufacturing chain.

A self-directed training programme

The Bio Academy also offers a self-directed training programme for the vaccine production professions, based on tutorial videos showing the right action and the right method. Since 7 July, modules corresponding to all stages of the process have been available via the Group's e-learning platform. 

First class at the Bio Academy 

The final milestone in this training arsenal: on 15 September 2025, the Bio Academy will welcome the first class of its eight-month work-linked training. Delivered by IMT, France's leading provider of training for industrial professions in the pharmaceutical sector, the course will be run on Virbac's premises. It will enable three internally mobile candidates to acquire new skills, and five external candidates on professionalization contracts to benefit from permanent contracts in production in a sterile environment as operators or technicians.

The course alternates one week of theoretical instruction with three weeks of on-the-job tutoring. Practical case studies are carried out in a Virbac training centre to give the trainees confidence and enable them to acquire the right skills for the job.

"This fast-track programme allows people to build up their skills, which normally takes 12 to 18 months. By taking on people who have no experience in this field, we give them access to a new job and new skills, which develops their employability", explains Anaïs Herrero. The result is in-house certification, enabling them to obtain the job with a coefficient level specific to the sterile professions.

By optimising team training to improve animal health, this initiative is fully in line with our purpose.