UNITED KINGDOM – Contract development and manufacturing company FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB) has begun extending its manufacturing facility in Billingham, as part of a major investment package.

The investment is set to more than double the site’s existing development and manufacturing footprint, creating up to 350 highly-skilled jobs.

The additional facilities are expected to be operational by late 2023. Once complete, the capacity for the facility will increase by 70 percent.

The expansion, designed to accommodate the increasing demand for its microbial development and manufacturing services, will comprise more than 20,000 square feet of modular clean room space.

The facility will include two primary recovery and refolding suites and a column packing room and will triple FDB’s current capacity of microbial production at the United Kingdom site.

The new space is designed to maximize the emerging SymphonX1 technology for clinical and commercial manufacturing.

The scheme forms part of a previously announced £400m (US$434 million) planned investment package to expand its cell culture capabilities, viral vector and gene therapy services, and microbial production.

Fujifilm’s investment in the United Kingdom site will allow FDB to respond to the increased demand of microbial expressed therapies.

In the United Kingdom, gene therapy production is planned to be increased ten-fold, cell culture capacity will be tripled and microbial fermentation output facility will be doubled.

The United Kingdom cell culture expansion will also include cGMP capacity for continuous manufacturing.

Process and analytical development capacity is planned to be strategically added as part of the investment.

Market growth for CDMO services, Fujifilm says, is expected to continue owing to increasing demand for biotherapeutics such as antibodies, gene therapy treatments and vaccines against new infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

The expansion will include a new production line equipped with 2 X 2000L fermenters and a modular purification suite. The utilities at the facility will be upgraded to accommodate for high-volume production.

Paul Found, chief operating officer, said: “Through innovation and the utilization of high-throughput technologies, we continually strive to increase our renowned microbial process development services to complement our extensive manufacturing experience.”

Earlier, Fujifilm Corporation announced a US$850m (¥90bn yen) investment package to accelerate the growth of its core bio CDMO subsidiary, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in the United States.

The CDMO specializes in the development and manufacturing of recombinant proteins, vaccines, and monoclonal antibodies, among other large molecules in addition to viral products expressed in an array of microbial, mammalian, and host/virus systems.

The investment will significantly increase the company’s manufacturing capacity. The expansions will double cell culture production for recombinant vaccines in the United States.

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