Facilities & Capacity

Sanofi to fill-finish up to 200m doses of Moderna’s COVID vaccine

Sanofi will supply fill-finish services for up to 200 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273. French pharma giant Sanofi will use its site in Ridgefield, New Jersey to support manufacturing of Moderna’s cell-free COVID-19 vaccine, 1273, approved under Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency authorization. According to the firm, it could help manufacture up to 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine starting from September 2021 through to April 2022. “While our utmost priority remains to advance our two COVID-19 vaccine…

Regeneron rejigs plans to build preclinical facility in NY state

Regeneron is reportedly injecting $480 million in a planned expansion at its campus in Greenburgh, New York including a preclinical manufacturing facility. According to various publications such as Westfair Online and Real Estate In-depth, Regeneron has designed a $480 million preclinical manufacturing facility at its Tarrytown campus in New York and proposed it to Westchester County’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA). The reported plan to build a 207,000 square-foot laboratory is said to have been amended from an initial proposal that…

BMS to build fifth cell therapy plant in response to CAR-T success

After recent CAR-T cell therapy success, Bristol-Myers Squibb will build its fifth advanced therapy manufacturing plant in Leiden, The Netherlands. The biopharma giant has invested in its fifth cell therapy manufacturing plant in Leiden, Netherlands. The plant will be its first in Europe alongside global manufacturing partnerships. The investment is part of its continued commitment to growing its cell therapy franchise and patients with haematological cancers. “At the heart of Bristol Myers Squibb’s commitment to cell therapy is our continuous…

Bayer confirms $200m Berkeley cell therapy facility

The Cell Therapy Launch Facility will support Bayer’s growing advanced therapy ambitions and comes in addition to a $1.2 billion investment in the Californian campus. Bayer has confirmed it is expanding its cell and gene capabilities through the addition of a Cell Therapy Launch Facility, which is set to join a Cell Culture Technology Center (CCTC) and Cell & Gene Therapy labs coming on-line later this year at its 46-acre campus in Berkeley, California. “The Cell Therapy Launch Facility is…

Evotec to build $180m European biomanufacturing plant

Evotec is set to build its second biomanufacturing J.POD facility at Campus Curie in Toulouse, France. The French facility will be Evotec’s first commercial biomanufacturing plant in Europe, with construction expected to begin during the second half of this year and the site anticipated to be fully operational in 2023. The firm will receive up to €50 million ($60m) from the French government, the Occitanie Region, the Haute-Garonne prefecture, Bpifrance, and Toulouse Métropole. However, the total investment is currently calculated…

Pfizer mRNA risk paying off as it moves to make 3bn doses of COVID jab

Pfizer says it will produce 3 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine this year and will further invest in its manufacturing network to support continued global demand. Through its partnership with BioNTech, Pfizer became the first company to bring a messenger RNA-based product to market, namely the COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty (BNT162b2). Last month, the firm estimated it was set to make around $15 billion from global sales of the vaccine this year, based on production projections of 2 billion doses.…

VGXI ups DNA capacity by over 500% with Texas facility

CDMO VGXI will increase plasmid DNA capacity by over 500% through an investment at a site in Conroe, Texas. The contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) did not divulge any financial details associated with its new headquarters and manufacturing plant. However, the facility will be located at Deison Technology Park in Conroe, Texas on a 21.5-acre area of land. “The new facility is purpose built to support VGXI’s optimized Plasmid DNA production process at expanded scales and across multiple flexible manufacturing…

Fareva to grow its newly acquired biomanufacturing capabilities

Fareva will make a “major investment†within its newly formed GTP Biologics division a year after entering the biologics CDMO sector. Fareva, a prominent third-party manufacturer in the small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and finished formulation space, entered the biologics sector last year through the acquisition of two facilities from fellow French firm Pierre Fabre. Along with an oncology injectable plant in Pau, southwestern France, the firm picked up a monoclonal antibody (mAb) production facility in Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, on the…

Emergent issues: FDA orders production halt at Bayview plant

COVID-19 vaccine contract manufacturer Emergent BioSolutions has stopped production at its beleaguered Bayview, Maryland plant following a US FDA inspection that led to a Form 483 with nine observations. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began an inspection at the Bayview site in Baltimore, Maryland on April 12 and, according to Emergent, four days later requested a manufacturing hold. “On April 16, 2021, at the request of the FDA, Emergent agreed not to initiate the manufacturing of any new…

Catalent adds cryogenic capabilities at Philadelphia facility

CDMO Catalent has invested to expand cryogenic capabilities at its clinical supply services facility in Philadelphia to meet cell and gene therapy demand. The contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) did not disclose any financial details of the investment. However, a spokesperson for Catalent told BioProcess Insider “In addition to the equipment necessary to handle, package and label cryogenic materials, Catalent will add five cryogenic freezers with enough capacity for tens of thousands of vials at very low temperatures of around…