Fujifilm Diosynth’s CEO Martin Meeson sees no slowdown in demand for CDMO capacity across all modalities as work begins on a $1.8 billion mammalian cell culture plant in North Carolina. In March, contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies selected Holly Springs, North Carolina as the site of its latest addition to its biomanufacturing network. Construction began last week on the Â¥200 billion ($1.8 billion), and once operational in 2025 it will offer biopharma customers 8 x 20,000…

Touchlight has received the first phase of planning approval for its manufacturing facility in Hampton, UK and extended its funding round to $125 million. Hampton, UK-based firm Touchlight announced in March it had raised £42 million ($58 million) through a fundraising round led by Bridford Investments Limited, which would see the firm expand its London facility. Now, the company has extended its fundraising to a total of £92 million ($125 million) on the back of increased demand for its synthetic…

MilliporeSigma has opened its second Carlsbad, California-based facility to support large-scale manufacturing for viral gene therapies. The life sciences services division of Merck KGaA, MilliporeSigma, announced its plans to invest $110 million to construct a second facility at its Carlsbad site in April 2020 as part of its gene therapy contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) business. Now the firm has opened its doors to the 140,000 square-foot facility, which MilliporeSigma says will more than double its capacity to support large-scale industrial…

Charles River says the divestment of a plasmid DNA CDMO facility in Sweden will help optimize its business and does not signify a U-turn in its cell and gene therapy strategy. In February this year, Charles River Laboratories agreed to pay $875 million in cash to acquire Cognate BioServices. The deal propelled the biopharma services firm into the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) space, adding a network of cell therapy and plasmid DNA manufacturing facilities. The deal went through…

The construction of a gene therapy facility in Sheffield, UK will advance scientific discoveries into treatment options for patients, says University. The Gene Therapy Innovation and Manufacturing Centre (GTIMC) is one of three hubs, which are part of an £18 million ($24 million) network funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), LifeArc, and supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The other two hubs are located at Kings College London and NHS Blood and Transplant in Bristol…

Boehringer Ingelheim’s biologics facility in Vienna, Austria boasts 48 bioreactors to support both its own products and its CDMO business. It has been six years in the making, but German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim inaugurated its latest site this week, opening the doors on its Large Scale Cell Culture (LSCC) biologics manufacturing plant in Vienna, Austria. The facility boasts a total of 48 stainless-steel bioreactors at various scales, including nine 15,000 L tanks, along with digitalization and automation technologies, and artificial…