Ardena says the investment is driven by business growth, capacity needs and its ambition to become a leading mid-sized CDMO.

In partnership with GHO Capital, contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) Ardena has invested $35 million to expand its European operations in Belgium, Sweden, and the Netherlands to ensure the firm can offer end-to-end solutions.

“All expansion work is expected to be complete by Q1 in 2023,” Gerjan Kemperman COO at Ardena told BioProcess Insider.

Image: iStock/Ghing

The firm will expand its drug product services in Belgium, this includes aseptic fill-finish capabilities to develop and manufacture small molecules and injectable formulations.

Additional capacity for large molecule biologics will be increased to include proteins, peptides, oligonucleotides, DNA, recombinant RNA, synthetic RNA, and RNA vaccines.

Ardena will expand its Swedish facility to support the commercialization of COVID-19 vaccines and drive its API business.

In turn, the CDMO can offer more preparative chromatography, specialized filtration technology, and lyophilization capacity in large quantities.

“Ardena has seen and is actively working on a growing number of COVID-19 related projects across the different business units,” Kemperman told us.

He added: “We are involved in early phase COVID-19 related drug substance and drug product development projects as well as in supporting the commercialization of a COVID-19 vaccine.”

In the Netherlands the investment will be used to expand cleanroom space, chemical manufacturing capacity, warehouse space, additional laboratories, and technology to support the growth of API and nanomedicine activities.

Kemperman said the manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands and Sweden “will see the bulk of this investment” driven by substantial expansion of chemical production capabilities, larger clean rooms, and additional lab spaces.

Ardena will recruit additional employees across the business units to service the three expansions.