With biopharmaceuticals dominating the drug development landscape, Thermo Fisher Scientific says it needs more capacity throughout its manufacturing network. To that end, its CDMO operations will invest $150 million in three sites.
The company says the investments will provide additional capacity for sterile liquid and lyophilized product development and commercial manufacturing at sites in Greenville, North Carolina, as well as Monza and Ferentino, Italy. Each site will get aseptic filling lines and isolator technology. Construction is slated to be complete within 24 months.
"These investments will help expand our global sterile manufacturing network and meet the increasing demand from customers that rely on our biologics development and manufacturing expertise," Michel Lagarde, president of Thermo Fisher pharma services, said in an statement this week.
The Waltham, Massachusetts-based pharma services company jumped into the contract manufacturing business big-time two years ago with its $7.2 billion deal to buy Patheon, one of the largest contract manufacturers in the world.
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In fact, 2017 turned into a watershed year for the CDMO industry. Lonza paid $5.5 billion for Capsugel to get a solid place in that niche of the business, then followed that up with a small deal for Netherlands-based PharmaCell, a gene and cell contract manufacturer in Europe.
But the consolidation didn’t stop there. Weeks after those two deals were done, Catalent, another sizable operator, agreed to pay $950 million to buy Cook Pharmica to get its extensive biologics manufacturing operation in Bloomington, Indiana.