Astrea Bioseparations said the decision to build a chromatography facility in Canton, Massachusetts reflects the growing demand in North America. The firm announced the decision to expand its manufacturing capabilities in the US at Biotech Week Boston (BWB), which kicked off today. While financial details of the expansion remain undisclosed, the 12,000 square-foot facility will provide increased production and warehousing capacity for Astrea’s chromatography solution services. “It’s not so much the increase of volume demand, more the type of solution,”…

Astellas Pharma says a drug product manufacturing facility in Tralee, Ireland will strengthen its internal supply chain. According to the firm, the investment worth over €330 million ($351 million) will bolster capacity and capabilities for aseptic drug products. Additionally, the facility will support stable manufacturing for global supply and advance the development and commercialization of antibody drugs and various other products. “It will enhance our in-house production capability and strengthen the manufacturing and supply chain from development to commercialization. This…

Moderna says it is addressing the rising cost of goods from underutilized COVID vaccine capacity by downsizing its manufacturing network. Moderna’s rise to the dizzying heights of Big Biopharma status came through its rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s vaccine Spikevax – the second messenger RNA (mRNA) product to win approval – brought in $7.7 billion in 2021 and $18.4 billion in 2022. (For context, Moderna’s pre-pandemic revenue in 2019 stood at $60 million). To support sales, the company…

Following an MHRA approval, Rentschler Biopharma’s site in Stevenage, UK is set for clinical production of AAV vectors for gene therapies. The family-owned contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) Rentschler Biopharma announced its plans in February 2021 to set up production capabilities at the UK’s Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) Catapult in Stevenage, launching itself into the regenerative medicine space. After a successful inspection by the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the site has received the cGMP Manufacturing…

ElevateBio says its emerging technology laboratory enables the firm to stay on the cutting-edge of solutions.   Neither a contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) nor an end-user, cell and gene therapy (CGT) firm ElevateBio, sat down with BioProcess Insider to discuss the importance of technology in the industry and what it is doing to keep up with demand. “Instead of staying current with technology on the cutting edge, whether it’s attending conferences or even working with new device companies […]…

CDMO ten23 has expanded manufacturing capacity of sterile drug products at its Visp, Switzerland facility and will add quality control services in 2024. The Swiss contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) ten23 Health confirmed that, after a successful GMP inspection by Swissmedic, its new storage areas in the VIVA facility in Visp, Switzerland are operational. The output of its sterile manufacturing area will gradually increase by 50%. “We are thrilled to offer our customers additional sterile manufacturing capacity for sophisticated…

Celltrion has laid out 126 billion won to build a drug product plant at its site in Songdo, according to reports in the Korean press. The $94.5 million investment aims to construct a facility with an annual production capacity of 8 million vials when operational in 2027, according to various local news sites. “Once the expansion of the new factory is completed, an intensive production system for each item will be established along with the production line of the existing…

With increasing demand for its shingles and RSV vaccines, GSK has invested $268 million to build a manufacturing center at its Wavre, Belgium site.  Shingrix, GlaxoSmithKline’s shingles vaccine, pulled in sales of £2.96 billion ($3 billion) in 2022, up 75% on the year prior. Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Arexvy earlier this year.  Such events have led the firm to invest €250 million ($268 million) to bolster its manufacturing operations…

CDMO Lonza began work this week on the 130,000 square-foot facility set to support Vertex’s cell therapies for type 1 diabetes. A groundbreaking ceremony was held this week for the dedicated facility, first announced in June, located adjacent to Lonza’s campus in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The dedicated facility will support Vertex’s type 1 diabetes candidates, including VX-880, fresh from producing positive results in an ongoing Phase I/II study. VX-880 is an investigative allogeneic cell therapy, acquired through the Semma Therapeutics…

Catalent has set-up a Strategic and Operational Review Committee to address recent missteps as part of a deal with activist investor group Elliott Investment Management. Catalent’s woes go beyond the simple post-pandemic slowdown felt by many of its fellow contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs). Operational issues at facilities in Harmans, Maryland, Bloomington, Indiana and Brussels, Belgium, coupled with struggles to report timely quarterly results have led to analyst downgrades and allegations of financial mismanagement. In May, the firm’s stock…