French biotechnology company Samabriva has opened a new 1,400 m2 biomanufacturing facility in Liege, Belgium. The multi-million Euros investment is designed to provide industrial-scale production of high-value natural molecules used in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products, the company said.
Driven by increased demand in biologic-based drugs, biologic drug substance manufacturing continues to be an active area of investment by contract development and manufacturing organizations/contract manufacturing organizations (CDMOs/CMOs), including several multi-billion large-scale biomanufacturing projects. What companies are expanding, and where do these expansions stand?
US biotech company Antheia and Olon, an Italian producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), have announced the continuation of their ongoing partnership to utilize Olon’s fermentation infrastructure for the scale-up and commercialization of Antheia’s early products.
Epsilogen and Lonza have successfully completed the manufacturing of a potential cancer treatment. The complex process, which took less than ten months, was carried out at Lonza’s UK site following Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards.
AGC Biologics, a biopharma CDMO, has completed the expansion of its manufacturing capacity at the company’s Cell & Gene Center of Excellence in Milan, Italy.
After building up manufacturing footholds outside the US, including in Australia, Kenya, South Korea, Canada and the UK, vaccine specialist Moderna is planning to build a new plant closer to its home base in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
As Novartis moves toward shedding generics subsidiary Sandoz, which it touts as a global leader in off-patent generic and biosimilar drugs, Sandoz has agreed a multi-year strategic partnership with Just –Evotec Biologics, the Seattle, Washington-based US subsidiary of Germany’s Evotec, to develop and manufacture biosimilars.
US life sciences company Cytiva has acquired Germany’s Cevec Pharmaceuticals, a move Cytiva said would further strengthen its leading position in biomanufacturing solutions. Financial terms were not revealed.
Biomanufacturing for both traditional biologics and new modalities, such as cell and gene therapies, continues to be an active area of investment for CDMOs/CMOS. Some of the major investments by the larger CMDOs/CMOs are outlined in this article.
