Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, a biologics CDMO and a subsidiary of Fujifilm Corporation, plans to invest more than JYP 200 billion ($1.9 billion) to establish a new large-scale cell-culture production site in the US.

The new facility will provide large-scale cell-culture manufacturing of bulk drug substance with 8 x 20,000-L bioreactors (physical volume), with the potential to expand and add a further 24 x 20,000-L bioreactors based on market demand. In addition to drug-substance manufacture, the facility will also provide commercial-scale, automated fill–finish, assembly, packaging, and labeling services. The new site will be built within the vicinity of an existing Fujifilm site and is scheduled to begin operations in the spring of 2025.

The investment is the latest in a series of biomanufacturing expansions by the company. In June 2020, Fujifilm announced a JYP 100-billion ($935-million) investment in the company’s Hillerød, Denmark site to double its large-scale cell culture manufacturing capacity and add commercial-scale drug-product production services. Fujifilm had acquired the site from Biogen in 2019 for approximately JYP 98 billion ($919 million).

In a smaller investment, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies announced this week (January 5, 2021) an investment of approximately JYP 4 billion ($39 million) to establish a new process development and manufacturing facility for viral vectors and advanced therapies in the greater-Boston area.

The new facility is scheduled to begin process development operations in the fall of 2021. The new facility will house experimental and analytical equipment for viral vector and advanced therapy process development, with contract manufacturing services for early-phase clinical trials beginning at the site in the fall of 2023.

The facility will be the third for Fujifilm for viral vector CDMO services. In 2014, Fujifilm established viral vector manufacturing offering at its site in Texas and has invested a further JYP 13 billion ($126 million) in the Texas site to build a new process development facility and to expand existing manufacturing facilities. More recently, the company announced an investment to provide process and analytical development and manufacturing of viral vectors at its site in the UK.

Source: Fujifilm (cell culture facility) and Fujifilm (viral vector facility)