Bionova Scientific, which was acquired by the Asahi Kasei Group last year, is gearing up to expand its biologics manufacturing operations at its Fremont, California, facility.
Though scant on details, the company said in a Feb. 1 press release that the project will kick off an initiative to broaden its services portfolio to include more technical capabilities and therapies.
The new facility will replace the headquarters and development center, allowing for increased manufacturing operations. The completion of the project is slated for later this year.
“Our cell line development, process development and analytical services teams will each have more capacity and resources for development projects,” Darren Head, Bionova’s chief executive, said in the release. “Increasing our GMP manufacturing footprint in the West Warren facility will let us offer our clinical and commercial clients more manufacturing slots to meet their timelines.”
Japan-based Asahi Kasei acquired Bionova last April for an undisclosed price. As part of the deal, Kasei got Bionova’s 36,000-square-foot Fremont manufacturing facility that was completed in 2021. The facility features two 2,000-liter mammalian cell culture trains and the capability to produce multiple monoclonal antibodies and other recombinant proteins—one of the company’s areas of expertise—simultaneously.