NorthX bolsters manufacturing capacity with Valneva plant buy

The acquisition of a biologics manufacturing unit from Valneva will expand our capabilities and services to customers globally, says firm.

The acquisition sees contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) NorthX Biologics buy the Stockholm-based multipurpose facility from Valneva Sweden for an undisclosed fee. The facility is located is close to Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm.

“We take advantage of opportunities when presented to us and felt this site had a very  good complementary service offering to those we already offer. We will use this for our mammalian development and production facility,” a spokesperson for NorthX told BioProcess Insider.

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Investor group Flerie launched NorthX in 2021, through the acquisition of a former-Cognate plant in Matfors, Sweden from Charles River Laboratories. The entity has focused on providing plasmid DNA and technical protein production at commercial scale but has expanded into cell therapy services, and established GMP-manufacturing labs at the Matfors facility and at its Karolinska University Hospital campus.

NorthX said the acquired facility includes process development, GMP production, quality control analytics, quality assurance, and the ability to scale-up. As a result of this, the CDMO can provide a wider range of services to its customers globally.

30 staff members

The 30 employees who operate the recently acquired facility will join NorthX. According to the CDMO, the staff have significant experience of serving Valneva internally as well as working externally with different customers.

Moreover, the staff have knowledge in viral vectors and mammalian expression systems, which “complements” NorthX’s plasmid DNA (pDNA), proteins, and microbial manufacturing.

“I would like to stress that this acquisition is not just a good match business wise but also culturally. In the integration process ahead, we will listen carefully to the ensure that we are able to take the best from both sites” Helena Strigård, CEO of NorthX, told us.

“While our expertise and technical capabilities are highly complementary, our business cultures are overlapping and well aligned, so we are genuinely looking forward to the integration process. As an example, our company motto at NorthX is ‘small enough to care, big enough to deliver.’ This reflects how we take good and close care of our customers, while having the muscles to deliver, but also our ambition to take good care of each other within the company. And now we are keen to get to know our new colleagues.”