Chinese CDMO WuXi Biologics has laid plans to build a manufacturing facility in County Louth, Ireland, months after forming a vaccine joint venture. In May, WuXi Biologics formed a joint venture with Shanghai-based Hile Bio-Technology to service a 20-year manufacturing contract with an undisclosed vaccine developer estimated to be worth more than $3 billion (€2.7 billion). At the time, the Chinese contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) said it was scouting for a dedicated vaccine manufacturing site, and it turns…

Danish drugmaker Genmab has upped its relationship with long-term CDMO partner Lonza by reserving space at the Ibex Design and Ibex Develop facilities in Switzerland. Contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) is constructing a biopark at its site and headquarters in Visp, Switzerland, to support its range of Ibex biologics development and manufacturing services. Denmark’s Genmab has been working with Lonza on multiple antibody-based programs since 2002, and with its strategy to fully outsource its biomanufacturing, the firm has reserved…

Process development (PD) is a vital CDMO function and one that Avid will continue to invest in, the firm says as it opens a multi-million-dollar expansion in Orange County. Avid Bioservices opened the doors on an expansion at its site in Orange County, California last week. The multi-million-dollar investment increases the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) process development (PD) laboratory footprint four-fold, adding 24 benchtop process development bioreactors, ranging from 3 liter to 15-liter capacity in single-use and glass.…

French drugmaker Sanofi Genzyme has completed process qualification runs at a plant in Framingham based on digital and continuous biologics production technologies. Sanofi announced today that following successful process qualification runs in the last quarter, it has inaugurated a digitally-enabled, continuous manufacturing facility at its site in Framingham, Massachusetts. Nicolas Kressmann, a spokesperson from Sanofi, told Bioprocess Insider that the plant represented an investment of €290 million ($320 million) between 2014 and 2018. The French Big Biopharma firm spends around…

J&J subsidiary Janssen has opened a 206,000 square-foot biologics manufacturing facility at its site in Ringaskiddy, county Cork. Janssen Science Ireland announced its plans to construct a €300 million biomanufacturing plant at its site in Ringaskiddy in 2017 and this week the 19,100 m2 (206,000 square feet) opened its doors. “Our manufacturing facilities in Cork are at the cutting-edge of delivering healthcare solutions, which is an important part of our credo commitment to provide the highest quality products to patients,”…

GlaxoSmithKline has increased drug substance capacity for Benlysta (belimumab) at its Rockville site. It is GSK’s second multi-million-dollar manufacturing project to open within a week In 2017, UK-headquartered Big Biopharma firm announced plans to invest $139 million (€126 million) at its site in Rockville, Maryland to increase the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing capacity for its lupus drug Benlysta. The project has now been completed, upping the Benlysta drug substance capacity at the facility by around 50%. According to Maryland…

CDMO Rentschler is adding a 500 L single-use bioreactor at the plant it acquired from Shire in January and says further expansions will add manufacturing and lab capacity. Rentschler completed the acquisition of the Milford, Massachusetts biomanufacturing facility from the now defunct Shire in January 2019, marking its first step into the US. The German contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) makes the recombinant hemophilia A product Obizur form the facility for Takeda – which bought Shire earlier this year…