The facility will be located on the same 75-acre campus as Amgen’s manufacturing site in West Greenwich, where the firm makes clinical bulk drug substances.
Two months ago, Amgen announced plans to build a facility at an estimated cost of $300m, but a spokesperson told us today the cost has reduced to approximately $165m “because it will be built at an existing Amgen site.”
The project is part of a larger plan to invest around $3.5bn (€2.8m) in capital expenditures in the US over the next five years, as a result of the last year’s tax reform.
As of December 2017, the US corporate tax rate has dropped from 35% to 21%, which provides incentive for firms to invest in the country and repatriate cash held overseas.
Site construction will be completed in 2020, and add approximately 150 manufacturing jobs and 200 construction and validation positions.
Next-generation?
According to Amgen, a ‘next-generation’ biomanufacturing facility can be built in half the construction time of a traditional plant, and requires half the operating costs.
The concept involves a smaller manufacturing footprint and can help lower water and energy consumption, as well as reduce carbon emissions.
Amgen’s $200m next-generation biomanufacturing plant opened in Singapore in 2014. The site houses single-use bioreactors, continuous purification processing, and real-time quality analysis technology.
Keeping in line with the next-gen formula, the site was completed in half the time required for a traditional plant, and Amgen said its modular design enables the firm to eliminate costly and complex retrofitting when structuring changes.