Fujifilm Investing $533 M To Expand Biomanufacturing
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, a biologics CDMO and subsidiary of Fujifilm Corporation, plans to invest £400 million ($533 million) to expand its site in Billingham, Teesside, UK
The expansion more than doubles the site’s existing development and manufacturing footprint and is expected to create up to 350 jobs. The new facilities are expected to be operational by late 2023.
The new multi-modal campus will include a viral gene-therapy facility and a mammalian cell-culture facility and is part of a 90 billion Yen ($797 million) global capital investment package initially outlined by Fujifilm Corporation in June 2021.
In addition to the cell-culture facility, the new investment package will expand the viral vector and gene therapy services offered by Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies from the UK with dedicated process development capabilities and a commercial-scale viral gene-therapy facility, both located on the Billingham campus. This expansion will deliver a ten-fold increase in gene therapy production capabilities by Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in the UK, and complement its existing global footprint, including sites in College Station, Texas and Watertown, Massachusetts. The investment will also facilitate the expansion of existing capabilities in vaccine manufacturing, along with new capabilities, including mRNA production.
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies previously announced plans to expands its viral vector and gene therapy offerings in Darlington, UK, with process development laboratories and manufacturing capabilities to support the production of investigational use of gene therapies in early-stage clinical trials. The process development laboratories have already begun operations, with manufacturing services starting in the spring of 2022.
Additionally, an expansion of the company’s existing 5,000-L microbial production facilities will also take place at the Billingham campus. This expansion will increase microbial fermentation capacity by almost two-thirds. The expansion will include over 20,000 square feet of modular downstream cleanroom space, including two primary recovery and refolding suites, two purification suites and a column packing room. The expansion also includes quality control labs, office space, and materials storage. This expansion is slated to be operational by late 2023/early 2024.
