The company plans to transform the site into a biomanufacturing center for chromatography resins, which are used for analyzing or purifying biomolecules. Construction is planned to begin in the third quarter of this year with manufacturing scheduled to start in 2026.

“This shows our leadership in action, strengthening our focus on providing customers who use our resins to manufacture vaccines and life-saving therapeutics,” said Emmanuel Ligner, Danaher Group executive and president and CEO of Cytiva. “When you’re looking to help provide global biotechnology solutions to the world, it requires you to be nimble and flexible. By investing in Muskegon, Michigan, we will be closer to our North American customers, who are developing advanced biotherapeutics.”

The site’s acquisition is part of Cytiva and Pall Corporation’s $1.5 billion expansion plans – both companies are part of Danaher. In July 2021, the firms said they would expand capacity and services across the world as part of Danaher’s strategic growth plan. Investments are either underway or have recently finished at new sites and existing facilities.

Excluding the Muskegon project, the plans include $400 million to expand operations for cell culture media in the UK, Austria and the US as well as $300 million to increase capacity for single-use technologies in the US and to fit out a new facility in Wales. An additional  $200 million has been budgeted for ongoing expansions at both companies’ sites in Asia-Pacific, China, Europe and the US.

On May 31, Cytiva opened a new cell and gene therapy manufacturing facility in Grens, Switzerland. The company also announced last month that it was opening a larger facility in Uppsala, Sweden, to expand capacity for Sephadex and Cytodex products by about 40%.

Sephadex products are used primarily to purify plasma-based medicines such as coagulation factors, immunoglobulin and albumin, among others, while Cytodex is used for adherent cell culture in vaccine manufacture.

“There are more than 2,000 components in plasma and more than 20 therapies that are currently approved using this technology. Research is ongoing but we know that the possibilities are great, and that’s why we have prioritized the expansion of this facility, so that we can enable bringing life-changing therapies to patients faster and more efficiently,” said Cytiva’s general manager, resins and technologies, Sofie Stille.

According to Cytiva, the increased demand for Sephadex products is driven by a growing market for blood plasma and manufacturing expansions at customers, while Cytodex has benefitted from significant growth in vaccine manufacturing over the past years.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist