Avid expands Californian PD and lab capabilities

Process development (PD) is a vital CDMO function and one that Avid will continue to invest in, the firm says as it opens a multi-million-dollar expansion in Orange County.

Avid Bioservices opened the doors on an expansion at its site in Orange County, California last week. The multi-million-dollar investment increases the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) process development (PD) laboratory footprint four-fold, adding 24 benchtop process development bioreactors, ranging from 3 liter to 15-liter capacity in single-use and glass.

Image: iStock/Christopher-Oliver

The “strategic expansion and enhancement of its process development capabilities and laboratories involved a multi-million-dollar investment from the company,” an Avid spokesperson told this publication.

Process development represents a “vital CDMO function” and one that “provides a critical advantage to customers in both early and late stages,” the spokesperson said.

“As such, it is an area within which the company will continue to work to strengthen its position as a leader in the CDMO space. Importantly, the completed expansion project further enhances the company’s capabilities in not only process development, but also in the areas of R&D support, process characterization and validation, and pilot scale production for a broad range of biotechnology products.”

The additional 6,000 square feet of dedicated process development lab space at the Franklin, California facility, was first announced in October 2018. At the time, the CDMO said the expansion would triple the company’s process development capacity and will feed demand from global clients seeking to transition their products into early stage clinical manufacturing.

“Avid’s laboratory expansion provides the company with added capabilities, allowing Avid to perform stand-alone process development and accelerate the onboarding of clients,” the spokesperson told us.

“The company now has 30 state-of-the-art scaled down bioreactors, which allows Avid to undertake sophisticated designs of experiments for our clients to support their process validation.”

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