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Brexit and Tax Rates Stoking Ireland’s Biopharma Sector

With the UK leaving the European Union and the US cutting its corporate tax rates, the changing business landscape holds both opportunities and challenges for Ireland’s life sciences sector. For decades, Ireland has cemented itself as a major pharma and biopharma manufacturing hub, spurred by low corporate tax rates, and a highly skilled workforce. Its language, proximity to Europe and its membership of the common market have also boosted multinational investment. On the other side of the Irish Sea, the…

Compact Manufacturing: Next-Gen Media Could Save $30k per Run, Amgen

by Dan Stanton

Granulation and concentrates will improve media compounding speed and manufacturability of Amgen’s next-generation biologics, the firm says. In 2014, Amgen opened a US$200 million (€168 million) next-generation production facility in Singapore intended to manufacture biologics with greater speed, productivity and flexibility. The model is being replicated at another facility under construction at Amgen’s West Greenwich, Rhode Island, campus. The two manufacturing plants are based on enabling technologies including single-use, modular design, and process intensification. Smaller Manufacturing but Larger Media Footprint…

GE Considers Broadening ‘Brilliant’ Approach to Media Manufacturing

by Dan Stanton

GE Healthcare has implemented its Brilliant Manufacturing software at a plant in Utah, and says it is looking to broaden the analytics platform across its cell culture media network. In 2015, bioprocessing tools and equipment firm GE Healthcare launched its Brilliant Manufacturing Suite aimed at increasing production efficiency and optimization through analytical software. While offered as a service to its customers, the firm has also implemented the technology at its own facilities, including as part of a manufacturing transformation project…

J&J Repurposing US Site to Support CAR-T Manufacturing

by Dan Stanton

Johnson & Johnson is renovating a facility in the US to make anti-cancer CAR-T candidate LCAR-B38M licensed from Legend Biotech last year. In December 2017, J&J subsidiary Janssen Biotech, Inc., entered into the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell space through a US$350 million (€304 million) collaboration and licensing deal with Chinese firm Legend Biotech. Legend’s oncology candidate, LCAR-B38M, targets the B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) and is under review in China. At the Goldman Sachs Annual Global Healthcare Conference earlier this…

CAR-T Firm Autolus Raises $150m in IPO

by Dan Stanton

Autolus Therapeutics has gone public and says it is looking to build its own T cell therapy manufacturing capabilities. Autolus launched its initial public offering (IPO) in May, and today the firm said it has raised approximately US$150 million ( €129 million) and has begun trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “AUTL.” The London, UK-based firm is a gene therapy developer working on personalized Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapies for cancer using its…

WuXi Pumps $20m into Conjugation and Fill/Finish Site

by BPI Staff

WuXi Biologics has begun building a biologics conjugation and drug product plant in China to support antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) services. To be known as DP3, the 6,000m2 facility will be the third drug product site for the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and is expected to be open next year. The facility in Wuxi City, China will offer both clinical and commercial antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) services and will be an extension of similar conjugation and fill/finish operations at WuXi’s…

Sartorius Pumps $100m in Puerto Rico, Doubles SU Bag and Filter Capacity

by Dan Stanton

North American demand for aseptic filters and single-use bags drove Sartorius to expand its facility in Yauco, Puerto Rico. German bioprocessing supplier Sartorius began expanding its Yauco production and distribution center in 2016 and has invested more than US$100 million (€86 million), according to spokesperson Timo Lindemann. The investment brings Sartorius an additional area covering nearly 190,000 square meters – around two million square feet – he told BioProcess Insider. “A focal area of investment will be on expanding aseptic…

Jefferson Bioprocessing Institute Aims to Feed High Demand for Skilled Workers

by BPI Staff

GE Healthcare and Ireland’s NIBRT will support the Jefferson Institute for Bioprocessing, set to open its doors next year. The site in Pennsylvania will train around 2,500 people in biomanufacturing operations per year. “There is high demand for trained professionals in the growing fields of biologics,” Debbie Goldberg, director of Public Relations at Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University), told BioProcess Insider. As such, the education and training institute for bioprocessing has selected a site and will open its…

Patheon On Keeping Up With Biologics Demand

by Dan Stanton

Patheon is doubling its biomanufacturing capacity through a $50 million investment in Missouri. We spoke with the CDMO about the continued demand for biologics services and its relationship with owner Thermo Fisher. In April, contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Patheon announced plans to add 16,000 L of single-use capacity at its St Louis, Missouri facility. The US$50 million (€43 million) expansion effectively doubles the firm’s global biomanufacturing capacity. According to David Kenyon, senior director of Global Scientific and Technical…

Coming to America: WuXi Biologics Expands Again

by Dan Stanton

WuXi Biologics will construct its first biomanufacturing facility in the US. The US$60 million plant is the third overseas expansion announced in the past month by the Chinese CDMO. Chinese contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) WuXi Biologics has rapidly begun expanding its biomanufacturing capacity. A string of investments over the past few weeks will add new capacity in China as well as see the firm venture overseas, including in the US where a US$60 million (€51 million) plant in…