China Gateway Biologics, the contract manufacturing wing of Shanghai-based pharma firm ShangPharma, will operate the facility located in the Qidong Biopharma Industrial Zone.
“The [$60m] investment offers China Gateway Biologics the opportunity to grow to the next level as a full biopharmaceutical service provider from preclinical development to commercial scale,” ShamgPharma’s CEO Michael Hui said in a statement today.
“We strongly believe the state-of-the-art single use facility conforming to Western standards will be able to support our international client base.”
The plant will be equipped with a 500L single-use mammalian cell culture train for clinical phase supply and two 2000L trains for commercial manufacturing, with fill & finish capabilities also available on site.
The facility is the first built in the dedicated Qidong Biopharma Industrial Zone and the investment was described by Qidong's Party Secretary Xu Feng as “a big milestone to establish Qidong as a biotech hub at the door steps of Shanghai.”
The site will also have preclinical research capabilities which will be operated by ChemPartner – ShangPharma’s contract research organisation (CRO) business.
BeiGene in Suzhou
The news comes weeks after Beijing-based biopharma firm BeiGene announced it was building a 9,000m2 cGMP commercial biomanufacturing facility in the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) in Suzhou, China – about an hour West of Shanghai.
“This will be a truly cutting-edge, state of the art facility utilizing the leading technologies in biomanufacturing that will also meet the utmost regulatory standards,” the firm’s Head of Regulatory Affairs Wendy Yan said in August.
“Upon completion we will seek the necessary approvals to ensure our new site is fully compliant with regulatory procedures in all key global markets, including the United States, Europe and China.”