Vibalogics set for live biological filling boost

The CDMO has expanded its capabilities with a new automatic vial filling line to meet increased demand.

The investment by the contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) extends its aseptic fill and finish capability by around 300%, reinforcing its ability to support early-phase biologic supply needs for Phase I and II clinical trials.

Operating from a multi-product BSL-2 facility in northern Germany, family-owned Vibalogics specialises in the handling and manufacture of viruses and live bacterial products for therapeutic and prophylactic applications.

Its new Bosch ARF 1020 filling machine will enable Vibalogics to fill 7,200 vials per hour with a maximum validated batch size for automatic liquid filling of 30,000 vials. This is complemented by a Seidenader visual inspection station and automatic labelling machine to handle the larger batch sizes.

Commenting on the investment, Dr. Stefan Beyer, managing director at Vibalogics said: “Our contract services business specialises in the aseptic processing of live biological products. The new filling line provides state of the art technology to meet the growing demand for this service from clients across the world.

“The idea behind the investment was to establish more manufacturing capacity to be prepared for outbreaks of highly devastating infectious diseases like the Ebola virus case in 2014/15. We also wanted to ensure customers from small biotechs and well-established pharma could benefit from greater quality, scale and faster processing times, which can be critical with the types of products we handle.

“As the biopharma sector continues to strengthen, we are committed to investing in the technology and equipment needed to meet our customers’ requirements.”

From its facility in Cuxhaven, Germany, Vibalogics provides process development and GMP manufacturing services, with a particular focus on aseptic processing of live viruses and live bacteria.

This project has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No. 115850. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA.