Asymchem Labs in early planning for $697M manufacturing facility in China

Asymchem Labs, a Chinese CDMO, is in the early phases of planning (PDF) a 4 billion Chinese yuan to 5 billion Chinese yuan ($557 million to $697 million) manufacturing campus on the outskirts of Shanghai.

The proposed production facility would be located in the Jiangsu Taixing Economic Development Zone. The focus of the site would be research and development along with production of chemical raw materials and small-molecule drug substances plus “the promotion and application of new technologies and other projects,” the company said in a financial statement.

Since the project is in early phases of negotiations for land and other considerations, the company didn't disclose any other details.

Like many in the CDMO arena, Asymchem has been on an expansion tear since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased commercial drug production demand.

In April, the Chinese CDMO completed construction of new production buildings at its Dunhua and Tianjin manufacturing sites in China. The company said at the time it planned to double its overall existing small-molecule batch capacity to 1,700 cubic meters by the end of the year.

In February, Asymchem shelled out $57.9 million to acquire Snapdragon Chemistry, a U.S.-based company focused on continuous manufacturing and early-stage chemical process development services. But earlier this month, the companies abandoned the deal as they couldn't satisfy U.S. Treasury regulations.