Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies last year committed 10 billion yen toward its manufacturing operations. It has now kicked off one of those projects, a $55 million expansion of its manufacturing facility in North Carolina.
The company says the nearly 32,000 square-foot expansion is for purification suites that will allow it to boost its cell culture manufacturing capacity by about 25% and microbial capacity by about 50%.
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"This expansion is a reflection of Fujifilm's continued commitment to grow its bio-CDMO business and FDB, to provide our clients with not only the skills but also the infrastructure that will nimbly deliver their products to the clinic and beyond," Martin Meeson, COO of Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, U.S.A. said in a statement.
A spokeswoman said the company will decide whether it needs more workers for the expansion once the work is complete in mid-2021.
The Japanese CDMO in November also announced plans for a $120 million addition to its facilities in College Station, Texas. That project is expected to add 75 to 100 more scientists when the first phase is ready in 2021.
Last fall, the company also completed an $890 million deal to buy a biologics plant in Denmark from Biogen, taking on 800 employees. Fujifilm will manufacture Biogen’s multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri for the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech.