Following the launch of Fujifilm Biotechnologies’ massive new cell culture facility in North Carolina last year, the CDMO is headed across the Atlantic for the next pit stop on its global expansion tour.
On Wednesday, Fujifilm Biotechnologies opened the doors to its expanded U.K. site in Teesside, capping off a 400 million pound sterling (around $546 million) project that’s been in the works since late 2021. With the debut, Fujifilm says it now boasts the largest single-use biopharmaceutical CDMO facility in the U.K., according to a Feb. 11 press release.
The new 110,000-square-foot production site, dedicated to small- and midscale antibody manufacturing, is equipped with 2,000-liter and 5,000-liter single-use bioreactors, with a total site capacity of up to 19,000 liters, Fujifilm said. The facility was designed with flexibility for future expansions in mind, depending on customer need.
The facility is expected to chip in on the development and manufacturing of medicines for conditions like cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and rare disorders, the CDMO said in a fact sheet covering the expanded site. The plant should be fully operational within the first half of the year, the company added.
Also part of the overall site expansion is Fujifilm Biotechnologies’ Bioprocess Innovation Centre UK, which the company has positioned as a global center of excellence for biomanufacturing innovation and process development. The facility, at more than 102,200 square feet, has doubled the Teesside campus’s existing lab space, according to Fujifilm.
All told, the entire Teesside site now stands at roughly 1.6 million square feet and employs more than 960 people, Fujifilm said.
As with the $3.2 billion North Carolina site Fujifilm christened last September, the Teesside expansion fits into the CDMO’s kojoX design philosophy, which hinges on a modular and standardized production network.
In practice, this is taking the shape of twin facilities: Just as the Holly Springs, North Carolina, site is effectively a clone of Fujifilm Biotechnologies’ plant in Hillerød, Denmark, so too will the expanded Teesside plant resemble the CDMO’s upcoming biomanufacturing facility in Toyama, Japan.
The Toyama site is expected to be operational by 2027.
“This represents the first small and mid-scale manufacturing site in our global kojoX ecosystem, which provides our partners with supply chain flexibility and agility,” Lars Petersen, Fujifilm Biotechnologies’ CEO, said of the Teesside expansion in a statement. “In leveraging kojoX across our sites, we are creating a framework where our partners can easily scale up and out from process development through clinical and commercial.”
Back in the U.S., Fujifilm Biotechnologies has already drummed up significant business at its new site in Holly Springs. Major commercial players Regeneron, Johnson & Johnson and argenx have each forged deals with the CDMO to win capacity at the site, which is currently operating with eight 20,000-liter bioreactors for both drug substance and drug product manufacturing. Fujifilm is planning to expand with another eight bioreactors at the same scale by 2028.
Based on Fujifilm’s estimates, global bioreactor tank capacity stood at 8 million liters as of 2023. If the market grows 8% to 9% annually, the company estimates that 6 million additional liters of capacity will be needed by 2030.
The CDMO market for antibody drugs, by comparison, is growing at a rate of roughly 14% per year and could be valued at around $20 billion by 2030, Fujifilm group CEO Teiichi Goto told Fierce in an interview earlier this year.
“We wanted to make sure that we will have a big share in this market,” he said.