Facilities & Capacity Archives - Page 60 of 73 - BioProcess InternationalBioProcess International

Orgenesis brings CDMO MasTherCell to US with Texas plant

Orgenesis has begun building a 30,000 square-foot cell and gene therapy manufacturing plant in Houston to be run by its CDMO subsidiary MasTherCell. Late last year, cell therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) MasTherCell essentially doubled its capacity through the opening of a 6,500 square foot wing at its site in Gosselies, Belgium. Now the firm is looking to bring its services to the US through the construction of a 30,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Houston, Texas. According…

Allogene building Cali allogeneic CAR-T facility

by Dan Stanton

Allogene has confirmed it is building a 118,000 square foot cell therapy manufacturing facility in Newark, California to support its AlloCAR T candidates. Last month, Allogene Therapeutics revealed to BioProcess Insider its intentions to establish a manufacturing facility in the San Francisco Bay area. The firm did not provide projections at the time, but has now said it has entered a lease agreement at a site in Newark, California to build a 118,000 square foot cell therapy manufacturing facility. “This…

AveXis on gene therapies: ‘We’ll get better at this and it will get cheaper’

by Dan Stanton

AveXis has spent about $1 billion in preparing to launch its spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) gene therapy later this year. The Novartis subsidiary is pumping a further $60 million into its North Carolina facility. In May 2018, Gene therapy firm AveXis announced a $55 million (€49 million) investment to establish a manufacturing center in Durham County, North Carolina. Nine months on, and AveXis is doubling down on the site, revealing plans to invest a further $60 million and create 200…

Drones to bioreactors: CDMO Culture Biosciences ready to fly high

by Dan Stanton

Culture Biosciences has secured $5.5 million in funding. Founded by former Google X engineers, the CDMO has harnessed drone delivery technology to support its bioreactor simulation and scale-up services. Led by Section 32, with participation from Refactor Capital and Verily, South San Francisco, California-based firm Culture Biosciences has raised $5.5 million (€4.9 million). The contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) is offering biotech firms a digital biomanufacturing platform and bioreactor facilities to run, monitor and analyze bioreactor experiments to assess…

AstraZeneca ups yields but takes $400m hit on plant closures

by Dan Stanton

“We can produce the volume we need with more limited manufacturing capacity,” says AstraZeneca in the wake of closing two biologics facilities in Colorado. Last month, AstraZeneca announced plans to consolidate its US biologics manufacturing operations. This included closing facilities in Boulder and Longmont, Colorado less than four years after acquiring them from Amgen, and moving operations to its site in Frederick, Maryland. The restructure aims to drive efficiencies in its operations network, but the Anglo-Swedish firm said it expects…

Meissner expanding footprint with Irish gov support

by BPI Staff

Filtration firm Meissner will establish a facility in County Mayo, Ireland for the manufacture of single-use systems, creating 150 jobs. Meissner Filtration Products has taken advantage of a 34,000 square-foot facility Advanced Technology Building, constructed by Ireland’s investment agency IDA, and plans to expand it by a further 100,000 square-feet. The firm plans to construct a cleanroom within the existing facility to be used for the manufacture of single-use systems (SUS) to support biopharmaceutical clients. Adjacent land at the site…

Dual sourcing drives global network as WuXi inks Amicus deal

by Dan Stanton

WuXi Biologics will harness its growing global network to supply the commercial drug substance and product for Amicus Therapeutics’ Pompe biologic ATB200. Amicus Therapeutics is developing a therapy consisting of recombinant human acid alpha-glucosidase (rhGAA) enzyme with an optimized carbohydrate structure, administered with a small molecule pharmacological chaperone. The product, ATB200, will be made by contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) WuXi Biologics. The firm, which has been working with Amicus to scale-up the product over the past few years,…

Regeneron plans to expand Irish biomanufacturing site again

by Dan Stanton

Regeneron has applied to build a three-storey facility as part of a reported €200 million ($228 million) expansion at its Limerick site. Biopharma firm Regeneron has applied for a 10 year permission to add a three-storey 10,200 m2 administration and laboratory building with associated plant and equipment to its manufacturing site in Ballycummin, Limerick, Ireland. The firm is also hoping to convert a temporary induction/training center and facility workshop to permanent use, as well as build a carpark, Limerick City…

Madison expansion will add commercial capacity, says Catalent

by Dan Stanton

Plans to invest $200 million laid down last year will put Catalent in a position to offer commercial manufacturing from its Madison, Wisconsin facility, the CDMO says. In November 2018, contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Catalent announced its intentions to invest across its two biomanufacturing sites. The board laid down plans to plough $100 million (€88 million) into its Madison, Wisconsin plant to add a fourth and fifth biomanufacturing train. During Catalent’s second quarter FY2019 financial call this week,…

Thermo Fisher to make T cells for Torque at new NJ plant

by Dan Stanton

Thermo Fisher will staff and operate a modular and fully-closed cell therapy facility in New Jersey on behalf of Torque. The 10,000 square-foot facility in Princeton, New Jersey is set to come online in 2019 and will support Torque’s immuno-oncology ‘Deep-Primed T Cell’ candidates. The products use the firm’s cell process engineering technologies, which do not require genetic engineering of the T cells, and lead candidate TRQ1501 (Deep IL-15 primed T cells) is set to begin Phase I/II clinical trials…