The 1,858 sq. m (20,000 sq. ft) expansion will include modular clean rooms, purification suites and a column packing room.
The work is expected to be completed in late 2023/early 2024, enabling the manufacturing capacity of the large-scale microbial production facility to increase by 70%.
Microbial expression technologies continue to be the pillar of the biologics industry, noted Paul Found, COO at FDB’s UK site. “Through innovation and the utilization of high-throughput technologies, we continually strive to increase our renowned microbial process development services,” he added.
This expansion is part of a previously announced £400m (US$431.25m) planned investment package at FDB’s UK site, to expand cell culture capabilities, viral vector and gene therapy services, and microbial production. The contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) said the project will result in 350 new jobs.
Cell culture manufacturing
And this month also saw the business hold a ground-breaking ceremony to green light the transformation of its Hillerød, Denmark site into the largest end-to-end CDMO in Europe.
The company wants to grow its cell culture manufacturing services in that country and create 450 new jobs.
This expansion is funded by a major capital investment of US$1.6bn by FDB parent group, Fujifilm Corporation, and is aimed at boosting the capacity of the current site by adding 8 x 20,000L bioreactors and two downstream processing streams.
When finished, the site will include 20 x 20,000L bioreactors for drug substance production along with drug product and finished goods services.
Ticking the sustainability box, FDB said the initiative is in line with Fujifilm’s climate action targets including operating on carbon-free energy and achieving net zero CO2 emissions by the end of 2040. Sustainable production enhancements will focus on initiatives aiming to reduce water consumption, to remove operational dependency on fossil fuels, exploring renewable energy sources, operational electrification, and process optimization to reduce natural gas consumption, added the CDMO.
