Germany’s BioNTech said it plans to accelerate and broaden the clinical development of its cancer immunotherapy pipeline in the Asia-Pacific region by expanding its clinical footprint to East Asia, specifically Taiwan.
Specialty chemicals producer Clariant said it will invest 80 million Swiss francs to increase output of existing products in the portfolio it manufactures at Daya Bay, Huizhou, China, as well as introducing new products there by the end of 2024.
Pfizer is planning to invest $750 million in its Kalamazoo County, Michigan, production site – one of its biggest – to increase output of injectables and vaccines, including the investigational mRNA flu shot currently in Phase 3 clinical trials.
WuXi STA has started up a new parenteral formulation line at its drug product site in Wuxi City, China. The company’s second line for parenteral drug product clinical and commercial manufacturing to go on stream this year has an annual capacity of 10 million units.
Responding to rising market demand, Japan’s Fujifilm is spending $188 million to establish a manufacturing facility for cell culture media in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA. The site – Fujifilm’s fifth worldwide – will be operated by subsidiary Fujifilm Irvine Scientific.
PPG has announced separate projects in Mexico and the US to expand capacity for powder coatings and adhesives and sealants respectively.
WeylChem is investing about €15 million to upgrade glyoxal production at its site in Lamotte, France. A new plant, which will increase capacity by approximately a third, is expected to start operating in early 2024.
Yara International has outlined an ambitious growth plan for its Clean Ammonia business, with “significant” investment decisions targeted over the next three years.
Full-service CDMO CordenPharma is making a major investment to increase lipid manufacturing capacity at its CordenPharma Chenôve facility near Dijon, France. The project is one of 25 based on mRNA technology that the French government is backing with altogether €585 million.
As demand for polyamide (nylon) continues to skyrocket and the market tightens, BASF has become the second major producer to announce a fresh investment in one of the polymer’s starting materials, hexamethylenediamine (HMD).
US paints and coatings group PPG has announced plans to invest more than $10 million to expand production of OEM coatings at its site in Weingarten, Germany. An addition to its existing facility will be able to produce more than 5,000 t/y of waterborne basecoats when it goes on stream in the second quarter of 2022.
French CDMO GTP Bioways, a specialist in biotherapies and nanotherapies, is investing €12 million in two new biopharmaceutical production lines at its site in Toulouse. The first line will be dedicated to production using microbial systems (bacteria and yeast), while the second is designed for the culture of mammalian cells at a scale of 10 l.
German plastics additives manufacturer Baerlocher is adding capacity for its calcium-based PVC stabilizers at Bury, UK. The company said it will expand output by more than 50% in 2022 by installing new mixing and granulation units.
Germany’s Merck has opened its second production facility for viral vectors at Carlsbad, California, a move the company said significantly expands its global CDMO footprint. The new €100 million plant will more than double the company’s existing capacity to support large-scale commercial and industrial manufacturing for viral gene therapy.
US specialty chemicals company Ingevity has announced plans to hike capacity for caprolactone monomer at its facility in Warrington, UK. The increase will be achieved through a series of optimization projects over the next 12 months that will expand Ingevity’s global monomer capacity by more than 20%.
Industrial gases producer Air Products has announced its largest-ever investment in the US, a $4.5 billion clean energy complex in the state of Louisiana’s Ascension Parish. The company will build, own and operate the mammoth facility expected to go on stream in 2026, producing more than 750 million standard cubic feet (22.5 million cubic meters) per day of “blue” hydrogen and blue ammonia.
Czech company Orlen Unipetrol, part of Poland’s refining and petrochemicals group PKN Orlen, has announced plans to expand its steam cracker at Litvinov by adding an eleventh furnace. The project costing about 700 million Czech koruna (about €27 million) will expand ethylene output at the site to 585,000 t/y from 545,000 t/y.
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, a subsidiary of Japan’s Fujifilm Corp., has announced plans to spend more than $2 billion to build a new large-scale cell culture production site in the US to accelerate the growth of its biopharma CDMO business.
