Speed is a consistent theme in Genentech’s blueprint for a new biologics plant at its campus in Oceanside, California, which the Roche subsidiary is pitching as “one of the most modern commercial-scale biotech manufacturing facilities in the world.”
At a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, Genentech unveiled plans for the plant, where it aims to leverage digital tech to move medicines from production to patients “faster and more sustainably.”
Genentech will plug $450 million into advanced manufacturing firepower at the Oceanside campus, where work on the new facility is expected to wrap up by 2025. Along the way, Genentech aims to create some 150 full-time positions at the site.
The plant is set to represent the first location in Genentech’s global manufacturing network specifically designed around “fast, efficient and sustainable” commercial production of biologics for smaller patient populations, including rare diseases and personalized medicines. The company is also keeping sustainability top of mind—both during construction and operation of the site.
Genentech already operates its Clinical Supply Center out of South San Francisco, so the new site's proximity will allow the company to cut the time needed to advance drug production through the various phases of development and commercialization.
Roche isn’t the only drugmaker pumping cash into trendsetting production plants. Last spring, Sanofi said it planned to invest a total of 900 million euros in a pair of so-called Evolutive Vaccine Facilities (EVFs) in Singapore and France.
Much like Genentech’s upcoming modular plant, Sanofi’s EVFs are designed for “agile and flexible” production of “multiple” vaccine and biologics platforms, including mRNA, enzymes and monoclonal antibodies, the drugmaker said. Sanofi has further described the Singapore EVF as a “first-of-its-kind,” fully digitalized and modular vaccine production plant capable for cranking out shots for Asia on a large scale.
Meanwhile, Genentech’s creation of new jobs is no doubt welcome news amid the seemingly endless deluge of pharma and biotech layoffs that have flooded the industry in recent months.
In the last two weeks, Amgen, Sanofi and Eisai have all telegraphed trims to their workforces. The problem has been even worse at smaller biotechs, where Fire Biotech logged 119 rounds of job cuts throughout 2022.