Gemini Bioproducts will receive $18.5m (€16.1m) in financing from BroadOak Capital Partners to support the expansion of its current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) liquid manufacturing facility, with the aim of boosting production capacity in the US.
The company stated that it chose to partner with BroadOak, due to the investment firm’s ‘deep expertise’ in the life sciences industry.
GeminiBio is able to manufacture small and large volume cGMP process liquids, which includes media, buffers, and other liquid solutions used in upstream and downstream manufacturing.
A spokesperson for the company told BioPharma-Reporter that it currently holds the capacity to produce such liquids in batch sizes from 10L to 1,000L.
“With this investment, GeminiBio will be able to increase manufacturing capacity to produce larger batch sizes, enabling them to produce 10L to 10,000L within our cGMP, ISO 13485 certified, and animal origin-free manufacturing facility,” the spokesperson explained.
This will be achieved by the building of new, large volume liquid manufacturing suites at its 25,000-square-foot facility located in West Sacramento, California.
The facility was originally opened in June 2020, with the location comprising of clean room suites, cold storage, warehouse, and administrative space.
Meeting demand
According to the company, there has been a twin driver for the demand for process liquids that has led to this investment. The first is that biotech companies increasingly prefer to outsource the production of process liquids.
“Media prep and process liquid manufacturing consume valuable resources and require considerable cGMP manufacturing space, both of which can be better utilized for the core manufacturing of drug products and therapeutics,” stated the spokesperson.
The second reason is the factor that has driven demand across the industry – the global pandemic. The extra demand placed on companies to produce therapies has led to a search to streamline the manufacturing process.
This is where GeminiBio is able to serve the market, by creating custom process liquids at varying batch sizes to the customer’s specifications, the spokesperson said.
The company is working with biotech companies specifically operating in the cell and gene therapy space, which is undergoing its own surge in funding and growth over the last few years.
Alongside working with the biotech industry, GeminiBio has also worked with the US Government. During 2020, the company received a $3.6m federal government contract to supply critical products that were particularly in demand for COVID-19 testing. This saw GeminiBio supply reagents in the area of viral transport media, phosphate buffered saline, and saline solution.