Symbiosis doubles Scotland footprint with $34m investment

Supported by the Scottish Enterprise, UK-based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Symbiosis has acquired a facility in Stirling Innovation Park in Scotland, UK. The CDMO expects to begin automated GMP sterile manufacturing in the first half of 2025.

The acquisition has doubled the firm’s existing footprint to 43,500 square feet. The facility will create 180 jobs and expand the firm’s automated sterile manufacturing production line capabilities and commercial fill/finish services, increasing maximum batch sizes to 15,000 vials.

“By investing in this new 20,000 square-foot facility and the cutting-edge pharmaceutical manufacturing automation, Symbiosis has positioned itself to provide additional significant world-class aseptic manufacturing capacity for our existing and future clients globally and represents the next major strategic chapter in the successful and consistently fast-growing trajectory of Symbiosis,” said Colin MacKay, CEO of Symbiosis.

“This step-change in operational capacity and the addition of automation, while retaining the organizational and cultural strengths of a fantastic team here at Symbiosis, positions the company for sustained growth and the continued generation of value for clients and shareholders alike.”

The Scottish Enterprise, a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government, will contribute £4.3 million ($5.5 million) toward a total investment of £26 million ($34.2 million). The expanded facility will include two cleanroom-based GMP-automated production lines. Moreover, the visual inspection of vials post-production and labelling processes have also been fully automated.

“This support for Symbiosis is just one example of how Scottish Enterprise is targeting key areas – in this case the life sciences sector – to bring significant capital investment and improve manufacturing, [and thereby] boosting exports,” said Kate Forbes, deputy first minister, Scotland Government.

In November 2023, the firm invested $1.25 million in adding a 3,600 square-foot bioanalytic plant to its site at the Stirling facility. The facility, approved by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), will provide quality control by testing small molecules, biologics, and advanced therapies.

Additionally, the Scottish CDMO invested a $1.9 million at the facility in 2019 to increase the firm’s output by about 25% and help feed the demand for aseptic GMP manufacturing (fill/finish) services.