Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies kicks off gene therapy capacity expansion

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB) has started work on capacity expansion to support high throughput and large volume gene therapy products at its manufacturing facility in Texas, US, the Japanese bio-focused contract research and development organisation (CDMO) said late Friday.

The USD $35 million expansion project includes new cell culture and high throughput manufacturing suites at the College Station facility, which will also house multiple 500L and 2000L bioreactors. FDB said it will complement development and early phase manufacturing capabilities at its National Centre for Therapeutic Medicine, also at College Station.

FDB – a partnership between Fujifilm Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation -- said it expects the expansion of the flexible biomanufacturing facility to be completed by autumn this year.

“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,” said Gerry Farrell, chief operating officer, FDB, Texas.

The expansion is part of an overall 13 billion yen (USD 120 million) capital investment in the gene therapy field by Fujifilm Corporation.

As well as Texas, FDB has development and manufacturing sites in Teesside, UK, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and Hillerød, Denmark.

Last week FDB also announced it had started work on its USD 55 million expansion of cell culture and microbial manufacturing trains at the RTP site.

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FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies