The planned expansion will take place at the company’s Center of Excellence (COE) for Biological Commercial Manufacturing in St. Louis, MO, and will see one of its existing manufacturing buildings expand by 64,000 square feet – a twofold increase in manufacturing capacity. It also will provide room for expansion in the future and adds approximately 80 new jobs.
According to the company, the new facility is expected to be operational later this year and will use Thermo Fisher’s bioproduction "eco-system" for bioreactors, consumables, and factory automation.
The site currently conducts process development, clinical cGMP manufacturing, as well as commercial manufacturing.
"Thermo Fisher's investment in the Patheon Biologics Network is a recognition of the extremely strong growth in demand for outsourced biologic development and commercial manufacturing," Stephen Lam, head of biologics, said in a statement. Thermo Fisher has over the past two years doubled its manufacturing capacity at all its locations, he noted.
In line with this, the company last month acquired the biologics CDMO Brammer Bio in a deal worth $1.7bn.
“Thermo Fisher Scientific has a unique position serving the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and one of the areas that our customers are most excited about, and asking for the most assistance with, is enabling gene therapy,” a company spokesperson told us at the time.