For the second time in five months, a pharmaceutical manufacturer in the Bryan/College Station biocorridor has announced a multimillion dollar expansion.
Thanks to the Brazos Valley Economic Development Corporation for letting us know that FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies has started a $35 million dollar addition to its flexible manufacturing facility.
This follows last November’s announcement of a $55 million dollar innovation center.
EDC president Matt Prochaska says both are related to the international corporation’s $120 million dollar capital investment in developing gene therapy products.
FUJIFILM did not announce how many jobs would be added by the latest expansion, which is expected to be completed by this fall.
The new innovation center that was announced last November is expected to create 100 new jobs.
Click below for comments from Matt Prochaska, visiting with WTAW’s Bill Oliver:
News release from FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies:
FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies U.S.A., Inc. (FDB), a world leading cGMP Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) supporting its partners in the biopharmaceutical industry with the development and manufacture of their biologics, vaccines and gene therapies has announced that it has commenced the planned capacity expansion of its “Flexible Biomanufacturing Facility” at its College Station, Texas location. The Flexible Biomanufacturing Facility is designed to support late phase and commercial manufacturing of gene therapies and other advanced therapies. The Flexible Biomanufacturing Facility complements the extensive development and early phase manufacturing capabilities provided by the company from the National Centre for Therapeutic Manufacture also located in College Station, Texas.
The expansion project will include the addition of cell culture and high throughput manufacturing suites. The expanded facility will house multiple 500L and 2000L bioreactors to support the production of gene therapy products that have high production demands. This $35M USD expansion is part of the previously announced capital investment of approximately 13 billion yen (approx. $120 million USD) in the gene therapy field by FUJIFILM Corporation.
“The capacity increase to our Flexible Manufacturing Facility will allow us to support the growing demand for commercial-ready, high volume production of gene therapy products, many of which are in development to treat rare diseases, which makes this announcement even more significant, as today we honor rare disease patients on Rare Disease Day,” said Gerry Farrell, chief operating officer, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, Texas.
“These investments are part of FUJIFILM Corporation’s long term strategy to provide leading, future proofed end-to-end gene therapy solutions, from pre-clinical to commercial launch,” said Martin Meeson, president and chief operating officer, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, U.S.A.
FDB expects the expansion of its Flexible Biomanufacturing Facility to complete by Fall 2020.