The construction of a vaccine and biologics production at a site in County Carlow is the latest commitment to Ireland, says Merck & Co. Merck & Co. – known as MSD outside of North America – will construct a second plant at its site in Carlow, Ireland, about 80km south-west of Dublin. The project will create 170 new jobs. “The facility will focus on the production of vaccines and biologics and there will also be an expansion of warehouse and…

Genmab says it chooses to outsource all its biomanufacturing having previously had its fingers burnt buying a facility in Minnesota, now owned by Takeda. In early 2013, Danish drugmaker Genmab A/S sold its non-plasma-derived antibody manufacturing facility in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, to Baxter Healthcare Corporation for $10 million (€8.7 million). The 215,000 square-foot plant housed 22,000 L of mammalian cell culture bioreactor capacity, and was originally acquired by Genmab from PDL BioPharma in 2008 at a cost of $240 million.…

Bayer will axe 227 jobs at its Berkeley, California site as it looks to restructure its recombinant factor VIII manufacturing network. The news comes weeks after its hemophilia treatment Jivi received US approval. Recombinant factor VIII protein (rFVIII) is used for the treatment of hemophilia A and employs genetically modified cells in its production. Bayer’s plant in Berkeley, California, is responsible for producing all three of its rFVIII therapies, including Jivi, a pegylated, long‐acting plasma/albumin free, full‐length rFVIII. The product…

Novartis has paid $40 million for a 9% stake in Cellular Biomedicine Group (CBMG), a Shanghai-based firm which will manufacture CAR-T cell therapy Kymriah for the China market. Under terms of the deal, CBMG will take responsibility for the manufacture of the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) from its facility in Shanghai, China, on behalf of Novartis entity Beijing Novartis Pharma for supply in China. “Aligned with our global supply and regulatory strategy, Novartis actively has been…

Celltrion says an additional 50,000 L of bioreactor capacity will come online next year. Meanwhile, the Korean drugmaker is “undecided” on the location of a third biomanufacturing facility. A capacity expansion at Celltrion is close to completion, doubling the size of the firm’s first facility at its site in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea. “Celltrion is currently wrapping up steps to add 50,000 liters of expanded capacity to its first plant based in Incheon,” spokesperson Heewon Park told BioProcess Insider. Presently,…

Bavarian Nordic has supplied volumes of its smallpox vaccine for personnel involved in the treatment of two UK patients diagnosed with monkeypox. At the time of going to press, two patients have been diagnosed with the potentially fatal but rare disease monkeypox in the United Kingdom. Both are believed to have contracted the disease in Nigeria, where there has recently been a monkeypox outbreak. While there is no specific treatment or vaccine for the viral zoonotic disease, Public Health England…

Much of Asia lacks traditional biomanufacturing infrastructure according to GE Healthcare, which says prefabricated facilities like its KUBio platform can support the rapid biologics growth in the region. BeiGene Ltd inked a deal with GE Healthcare in 2015 to install the bioprocessing vendor’s FlexFactory platform at its clinical monoclonal antibody facility in Suzhou, China. Three years on and the Chinese biotech firm has chosen GE Healthcare’s prefabricated biomanufacturing facility offering KUBio for commercial production of cancer MAbs at a site…