AGC Biologics Breaks Ground on Facility; Lonza Expands Drug-Product Mfg
The latest from CDMOs, CMOs, and suppliers featuring AGC Biologics, Lonza, Sartorius, Quotient Sciences, Recipharm, and SAI Life Sciences.
Chemicals/Chemical API Manufacturing
Quotient Sciences To Invest $8.6 M in Drug-Substance Mfg Facility
Quotient Sciences, a Nottingham, UK-based CDMO, is investing £6.3 million ($8.6 million) in drug-substance manufacturing at its facility in Alnwick, UK.
Quotient acquired the Alnwick facility from Arcinova, an Alnwick, UK-based CDMO of drug-substance, drug-product, and bioanalysis services in February 2021. The investment will repurpose a 1,500-square-meter footprint and incorporate additional equipment and technologies.
The Alnwick facility employs 170 people across a range of scientific disciplines, and the investment will create 80 new jobs over the next three years (as reported on August 25, 2021).
Source: Quotient Sciences
Biologics Manufacturing
AGC Biologics Breaks Ground on New Biologics Mfg Facility
AGC Biologics, a contract biologics manufacturer, has broken ground on a new biologics manufacturing facility at its site in Copenhagen.
This investment will more than double AGC Biologics’ single-use bioreactor mammalian cell-culture capacity at the Copenhagen site. The new facility will include a manufacturing building, an office building, and a visitors’ center. The manufacturing building will be comprised of four levels of approximately 8,000 square meters distributed across manufacturing, quality control laboratories, technical areas, and warehousing.
In addition to Copenhagen, AGC Biologics has sites in Seattle, Washington; Boulder, Colorado; and Chiba, Japan.
Source: AGC Biologics
Sartorius, McMaster University Partner for Biomanufacturing Optimization
Sartorius Stedim Biotech, a provider of bioprocessing products and services, has entered into a partnership with McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada to improve manufacturing processes of antibody and virus-based treatments for diseases such as COVID-19, cancers, and genetic disorders. Using a multi-column chromatography system provided by Sartorius Stedim Biotech, the McMaster team will seek to optimize a process for the purification of therapeutic viruses that is more effective and less expensive than those currently available, according to the company.
Source: Sartorius Stedim Biotech and McMaster University
Formulation Development/Drug-Product Manufacturing
Lonza To Invest in Drug-Product Mfg in China
Lonza is making an investment to establish drug-product manufacturing services at its site in Guangzhou, China.
The investment will fund the installation of an aseptic drug-product fill–finish production line at the company’s 17,000–m2 mammalian-cell biomanufacturing facility to provide a combined drug-substance and drug-product manufacturing service offering at the site.
The Guangzhou facility began operations in the second quarter of 2021, and the first batch from the site is expected to be delivered later in 2021.
The sterile, multi-product fill–finish production line will support the filling of liquid and lyophilized products for clinical trials and commercial batches. The installation is expected to be completed in 2022 and will create more than 150 new positions at the Guangzhou site.
To facilitate the installation of the new drug-product manufacturing line in Guangzhou, Lonza also plans to expand the footprint of its global drug-product services hub in Basel, Switzerland. Lonza’s drug-product services laboratories provide formulation development and process development.
Source: Lonza
General
SAI Life Sciences Opens New Biology R&D Facility
Sai Life Sciences, a contract research, development and manufacturing organization, has opened a new biology facility at its R&D campus in Hyderabad, India.
The facility houses expanded in vitro and in vivo biology services, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) and toxicology services, and a vivarium
In 2019, the company opened its first international R&D facility with a biology lab in Boston.
The Hyderabad site integrates the company’s discovery, early- and late-phase development and clinical supply capabilities on a 13-acre campus housing over 1,000 scientists.
Source: SAI Life Sciences
Recipharm Opens New Analytical Lab in India
Recipharm, a CDMO of APIs and drug products, has opened a new analytical laboratory at its facility in Bengaluru (i.e., Bangalore), India. The new 370-m2 lab has been in full operation since August 1, 2021. The lab is part of Recipharm Analytical Solutions, which provides outsourced support for analytical services from concept to commercialization.
Source: Recipharm
