The facility – J.POD 2 EU – is its second for cGMP biomanufacturing and follows the first, called J.POD 1 US, in Redmond, Washington, USA, which is under construction and scheduled to go into operation in the second half of this year.

Construction on J.POD 2, which will be Evotec’s first commercial biomanufacturing facility in Europe, is expected to begin in the second half of 2021, with full operations scheduled for 2023. It will employ Just – Evotec Biologics’ technology that utilizes small, automated, highly intensified and continuous bioprocessing operations housed inside autonomous cleanrooms.

Craig Johnstone, Evotec’s chief operating officer, commented: “We are very pleased with the market response and demand for J.POD 1 US even ahead of completion, so this second J.POD facility is a significant expansion of our capacity of disruptive and transformational bioproduction. In addition, the flexibility of the modular J.POD setup also creates potential opportunities for cell and gene therapy biomanufacturing.”

Total investment in J.POD 2 EU is estimated at €150 million, with up to €50 million funded by the French government, the Occitanie region, Bpifrance, the Haute-Garonne prefecture and Toulouse Métropole.

“The French Government invests in healthcare and other strategic sectors for our industrial sovereignty. This announcement from Evotec in the Occitanie region exemplifies our determination to relocate production activities in France, in particular regarding biotherapies which are at the core of drug innovation these past years,” said Agnès Pannier-Runacher, French Minister for Industry.

Evotec said its wholly owned subsidiary Just – Evotec Biologics makes the company ideally positioned to build the capacity required for the fight against Covid-19 and future pandemic threats. The German firm is supporting multiple projects against Covid-19, including partnerships with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the US Department of Defense.

Investment in OxVax

In separate news, Evotec has invested an undisclosed sum in OxVax, a new immuno-oncology company based on research from the UK’s Oxford University.

OxVax is developing an innovative cancer vaccine platform based on a unique and proprietary population of dendritic cells capable of inducing a potent anti-tumor immune response. The technology allows the bulk manufacture of the cells from donor blood-derived stem cells. By ex-vivo loading of the cells with tumor antigens, OxVax believes it will be able to create a vaccine that can train the body to target and eliminate tumors.

“Our platform enables the manufacture at scale of an off-the-shelf highly potent vaccine which addresses the major limitations that have frustrated cancer vaccine development in the past,” said OxVax CEO Marcelo Bravo. “Our immediate focus will be the definition of the quality profile of the product and the industrialization of the manufacturing protocol which will put us in a strong position to proceed towards the clinic.”

Thomas Hanke, head of academic partnerships at Evotec, added that the investment fits well with its ambition to “become a biotech powerhouse in off-the-shelf cell therapy offerings.”

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist