BMS teams with Ireland's NIBRT to strengthen biomanufacturing processes

29-Mar-2016 - Last updated on 30-Mar-2016 at 14:56 GMT

NIBRT: Ireland's 'flight simulator for biopharma manufacturing.’

Bristol-Myers Squibb has announced plans to set up a biomanufacturing process laboratory in collaboration with Ireland's National Institute of Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT).

The Big Biopharma firm will invest €1m ($1.1m) to establish a process science and technology laboratory at the centre in Dublin where a 12-strong team of scientists will develop production methods.

The collaboration comes less than two years after BMS announced plans to build a 30,000m² large-scale biologics facility in Cruiseraith, County Dublin at a cost of 900m, housing six 15,000L stainless steel bioreactors and creating 400 manufacturing jobs.

NIBRT and industry

NIBRT is a €60m Government funded training site, described as a ‘flight simulator for biopharma manufacturing,’ aimed at supporting industry and academia in biologics operations.

Since it opened in 2011 has – along with low corporate taxes - been deemed a major factor in helping bring biopharma investment to Ireland over the past few years

Killian O'Driscoll, projects director at the centre, told Biopharma-Reporter.com: “NIBRT is delighted to work with BMS’s process science and technology team.”

He added that while most of the research interactions related to this collaboration will be specific to BMS, he said “other interactions may focus on projects involving additional stakeholders,” and that NIBRT has collaborations with a number of biopharma firms with a presence in Ireland.

“These collaborations can focus on the requirements of a single company or can focus on industry wide challenges involving many stakeholders,” O'Driscoll said. “For example, as part of the Advanced Biopharmaceutical Technologies research collaboration announced in 2014, NIBRT is currently working with seven industry partners - Allergan, BioMarin, Eli Lilly, Genzyme, Janssen, MSD, Pfizer - and three research performing organisations.”

The BMS lab is set to open within the next three months.

Lou Schmukler, president of BMS’s global manufacturing & supply, said in a statement: “Bristol-Myers Squibb has a robust and growing portfolio of approved and investigational biologic medicines across multiple therapeutic areas, and NIBRT’s facilities and training capabilities will provide innovative and state-of-the-art support for our Cruiserath facility.”