Fujifilm Corporation has unveiled its plans to invest more than JPY200bn ($2bn) to establish a new large-scale cell culture production site in the US.
With the new manufacturing site, the company aims to accelerate the growth of its biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing business (CDMO).
The new facility is planned to be located near an existing Fujifilm site and will be operated by the company’s subsidiary Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies.
Fujifilm president Kenji Sukeno said: “The United States is the world’s biggest market for biopharmaceuticals. I am pleased that through this large investment in the U.S.A we are able to support the development and manufacturing of new drugs that can help fulfil unmet medical needs.
“Fujifilm will continue to promote human health and support the progress of the healthcare industry by using our cutting-edge technology and advanced facilities to provide a stable supply of high-quality biopharmaceuticals.”
Scheduled to start operations from 2025, the new facility is capable of facilitating large-scale cell culture manufacturing of bulk drug substance using 8 x 20,000L bioreactors, with plans to expand by further 24 x 20,000L bioreactors according to demand.
In addition to drug substance manufacturing, the facility is capable of providing commercial scale, automated fill-finish and assembly, packaging and labelling services.
The company is actively investing to enhance its service offerings across its Bio CDMO sites.
In June 2020, the company invested JPY100bn ($928m) in Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies’ site in Hillerød, Denmark.
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies chief executive officer Martin Meeson said: “We are leveraging our strengths in process development and manufacturing for a wide range of biopharmaceuticals such as antibodies, recombinant proteins, gene therapies and vaccines.
“We are uniquely placed to support our customer supply chain needs providing end to end services from small to large scale bulk drug substance production, through to fill-finish and final packing.”
Recently, Fujifilm has announced nearly JPY4bn ($40m) investment in Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB) to build a new process development and manufacturing facility for viral vectors and advanced therapies, in Massachusetts, US.
