Avid on track for third plant and to clear $73m biomanufacturing backlog
The biologics contract manufacturing organisation (CMO), a subsidiary of Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, reported sales of $23.4m (€22m) for the three months ending October 31, up 146% on the firm’s second quarter FY2016.
The increase was attributed to a second facility in Irvine, California which came online earlier this year, adding 2,000L of single-use biomanufacturing capacity.
Peregrine CEO Steve King said the two plants have the potential to generate in excess of $80m while “leaving additional capacity for revenue growth beyond the current fiscal year,” and said plans laid in September to build a third facility in Irvine will continue to go ahead.
“Even with this available capacity we are moving forward with our plans to construct a third manufacturing facility in order to meet the anticipated commercial needs of our clients, while continuing to grow the business by bringing in new projects,” he told investors yesterday.
Avid's current manufacturing revenue backlog is $73m.
However, the launch date of the third plant – located in Tustin, California – could be pushed back due to measures being put in place to increase “efficiencies that will reduce the overall cost of construction and, once built, the cost of operations,” King said.
“While this may delay the new facility launch until later in calendar year 2017 we currently have adequate existing capacity to continue meeting the needs of our current clients while also bringing in new customers. So we do not expect any delay in construction to impact our near term or long term ability to grow top line revenue as originally planned.”
The third plant will be equipped with two 1,000L single-use bioreactors.
