Avid to triple process dev capacity on early-stage demand

Since becoming a pure-play CDMO, Avid Bioservices says it is experiencing growing demand for process development services and has begun expanding capabilities at its site in California.

At the turn of the year, Avid Bioservices became a pure contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) by selling off its internal monoclonal antibody programs to Oncologie and dropping its Peregrine Pharmaceuticals nametag.

To grow the business further, Avid has begun a project to expand its process development services by adding 6,000 square feet of dedicated process development lab space and increase its current benchtop bioreactor capacity at its Franklin, California facility.

Avid is upping its PD services. Image: iStock/Sergey Tinyakov

And according to CEO Roger Lias, it has been “primarily driven by the company’s transition to a pure play CDMO, which has generated growing demand from global clients of all types seeking to transition their products into early stage clinical manufacturing.”

He told BioProcess Insider that “the company’s current efforts will help address the growing demand by both adding and significantly upgrading equipment that is critical for facilitating efficient, high-throughput process development.  Importantly, the latest phase of the expansion, which is focused on cell culture development, will approximately triple the company’s process development capacity.”

Positive customer impact

To become a major biologics outsourcing partner, capabilities and expertise in this area are essential for developing economically viable, compliant, robust and scalable manufacturing processes, as well as for transferring previously developed processes into our cGMP manufacturing facilities, Lias told us.

“The expansion of our process development capabilities has positive implications for both current and future customers.  For current clients, the expansion’s employment of state-of-the-art technologies and methodologies enables more efficient facility throughput and, in turn, significantly reduces time to market.

“From a future customer standpoint, these expansion efforts are expected to be a key driver of business growth, helping us to build and maintain a pipeline of future manufacturing opportunities.”

And while most CDMOs claim to offer comparable capabilities, Lias said it is the addition of these expanded capacity and capabilities, along with 25 years of experience and “impressive regulatory expertise,” that sets Avid apart.

“Furthermore, we have established close relationships with key partners and technology collaborations that allow us to provide our clients with full and seamless project lifecycle capabilities.  Finally, we believe that we have built a team of biologics manufacturing professionals that is unrivaled in terms of agile and creative problem-solving for key manufacturing challenges.”