WuXi Biologics further invests in Germany production network

CDMO WuXi Biologics will double bioreactor capacity at a facility in Wuppertal and add a second filling line at a plant in Leverkusen due to increased European demand.

China-headquartered WuXi Biologics bolstered its presence in Europe in 2020, adding first a drug product plant in Leverkusen, Germany and then a drug substance plant in nearby Wuppertal.

Three years on and the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) has pledged an undisclosed amount to expand both sites to support “global clients’ demand for outsourcing manufacturing services, especially European clients,” according to CEO Chris Chen.

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At the drug substance site in Wuppertal, WuXi will double its total capacity from 12,000 L to 24,000 L. The Leverkusen sterile filling and freeze-drying plant, which currently has an annual capacity of around 10 million doses, will see a second variable filling line added.

Both facilities were taken over from Bayer and, at the time, WuXi Biologics took the biopharma firm on as a client. However, “the service contract with Bayer for the drug substance facility in Wuppertal expired in May 2022,” Chen told us.

He added Germany, as a leading biotech and pharma hub, has been supportive of WuXi’s arrival and expansion. “The authorities have been very supportive in quickly processing approval procedures, in finding office space through the local economic development agencies.”

WuXi Biologics campaign in both its native China and overseas has seen the CDMO take a major stake of the market. The firm is expected to have 430,000 L of bioreactor capacity available from 2024, and expansions – like these in Germany – continue to be made thick and fast. Last year, for example, the firm ploughed $1.4 billion to expand its manufacturing capabilities in Singapore. Its spin-off business WuXi Vaccines, meanwhile, bought a facility from Harbour BioMed in Suzhou, China last November to act as a standalone vaccine development and production plant.