Fareva to grow its newly acquired biomanufacturing capabilities

Fareva will make a “major investment” within its newly formed GTP Biologics division a year after entering the biologics CDMO sector.

Fareva, a prominent third-party manufacturer in the small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and finished formulation space, entered the biologics sector last year through the acquisition of two facilities from fellow French firm Pierre Fabre.

Along with an oncology injectable plant in Pau, southwestern France, the firm picked up a monoclonal antibody (mAb) production facility in Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, on the French-Swiss border, equipped with single-use technologies up to the 2,000 L scale.

Fareva’s GTP Biologics site in Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, France

When the deal went through in November, Fareva spokeswoman Marie Wicart told this publication that while the main driver of the deal was the sterile biologics facility in Pau, “the acquisition of the monoclonal antibody site of Saint-Julien-en-Genevois is an interesting opportunity,” and “a first step” in the third-party biomanufacturing space.

The firm has now rebranded the mAb plant as GTP Biologics, Sebastien PONCET, VP of Strategic licensing more recently told BioProcess Insider, adding “a major investment” to expand production capabilities is under review.

While details have not yet been revealed, he said the premise of GTP Biologics is to offer a one-stop solution for drugmakers through upstream and downstream production, along with nano-encapsulation and fill & finish services.

According to a presentation sent to us, the upstream production unit at the plant has delivered over 20 stable cell lines (CHO, NS0) showing mAbs titers above 5g/L in non-optimized process. So far five projects have been developed by the team at the facility to clinical phases, comprising of four antibodies and one antibody-drug conjugate.