The site will quadruple capacity for manufacturing Sefia, Sepax, and Xuri consumable products with two new ISO class 7 cleanrooms, ensuring that increased future demand can be met. It will also serve as a Center of Excellence for Cytiva’s cell and gene therapy business and will be a base for European customer training programs.

“Our new facility in Grens will enable us to meet global demand for our products, while working with our customers to meet their immediate training and development needs. This facility brings us another step closer to our vision where access to life-changing therapies transforms human health,” commented Catarina Flyborg, vice president, cell and gene therapy.

In March, Cytiva announced the opening of a new facility in Cardiff, Wales, for making single-use products used in the development and production of biopharmaceuticals, such as Covid-19 vaccines.

A first ISO 7 class cleanroom in Cardiff is already completed, with another five due to be finished later this year. When complete, the site will help increase the company’s global manufacturing capacity for single-use products by 20%.

Cytiva said the expansion will help the needs of the UK’s rapidly growing life sciences sector. According to the company, $6 billion was raised last year in public and private financing by UK biotech companies, a 60% jump on 2020.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist