The contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) will invest S$80m ($60m) in the facility and hire 150 employees for WuXi Biologics’ first Asian site outside of China.
The Singapore facility will house 4,500L bioreactor capacity with two 2,000L traditional fed-batch and one 500L perfusion-based continuous processing for both clinical and small volume commercial production.
The CDMO will also install bioprocessing capabilities for early-stage development.
The investment will “initiate our first overseas Asian site in Singapore and enable local companies and expedite biologics development in Asia,” said CEO Chris Chen in a statement.
WuXi already has a client base in Singapore, including Zika virus antibody developer Tychan, a spokesperson told us earlier today.
Singapore’s Economic Development Board - which is supporting the development – said the investment will introduce WuXi’s bioprocessing technology platform to the region.
“Its presence here will also strengthen our ecosystem for supporting biotech companies from Singapore and beyond,” said chairman Beh Swan Gin in a statement.
The Singapore site marks WuXi Biologics’ third manufacturing facility announcement this year.
Earlier this month, we reported the CDMO’s plans to build a biomanufacturing facility in Ireland with single-use bioreactors and continuous bioprocessing capabilities for commercial production.
And last week, WuXi Biologics’ said it would build a biologics centre in Northern China to offer both commercial and clinical manufacturing services.