Fujifilm Diosynth invests $35m in gene therapy manufacture
The $35m (€31m) expansion of its ‘Flexible Biomanufacturing Facility’ in Texas, US, is part of Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB)’s previously announced investment of $120m (€107m) in the gene therapy area.
With this latest capital injection, the site will be expanded to include the addition of cell culture and high throughput manufacturing suites. As a result of the expansion, multiple 500L and 2,000L bioreactors will be added to the facility, the company stated.
According to Gary Farrell, chief operating officer for FDB in Texas, the expansion will allow the company to support the ‘growing demand’ for high volume production of commercial gene therapy products.
Farrell’s colleague, Martin Meeson, chief operating officer for US operations, added that the added capabilities are part of the company’s plans to provide ‘end-to-end gene therapy solutions’, from the preclinical to commercial stage.
The expansion is projected to be completed by fall 2020.
This most recent expansion comes as part of a wave of investment that Fujifilm has poured into its subsidiaries working in the biologics space.
At the end of last year, the company also announced that it had opened a gene therapy analytical services laboratory at the same Texas site.
However, of the recent deals, the largest was its decision to acquire a manufacturing site from Biogen in Denmark for $890m, vastly increasing its biologics production capacity with the addition of six 15,000L bioreactors.
