Marc Sauer Vice President, Research and Development BioVectra

In 2017, BioVectra will complete its fourth GMP intermediate and active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing facility in Atlantic Canada, outlined Marc Sauer, VIce President, Research and Development, BioVectra, at the DCAT Member Company Announcement Forum held on Monday March 20 at DCAT Week ’17. The 55,000-square-foot manufacturing facility includes 20,000 square feet of production and laboratory space as well as a 6,000-square-foot-warehouse. Overall, an investment in the range of $30 million has been made in the site, which the company acquired from Sepracor and is now further investing in the site, to add 40,000 L of fermentation capacity, downstream processing equipment, and new preclinical fermentation and potent chemistry suites.

The investment will increase BioVectra’s total capacity by 40%. The new facility in Windsor is within 40 minutes of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is located to to support companies particularly in the Northeast of the US. The Windsor facility is expected to be fully operational by late 2017. BioVectra’s additional three GMP facilities and headquarters are located in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Sauer explained that the acquisition and retrofit of the Windsor facility is an investment in BioVectra’s core development and manufacturing competencies, fermentation and complex chemistries. Microbial fermentation may be used in the manufacturing of biologics and complex small molecules, and he offered market estimates of $2 billion for outsourced contract fermentation services. The expansion enables BioVectra to offer scale throughout the entire lifecycle of a product and adds to the company’s capability, efficiency, and flexibility in fermentation production, which enhances its ability to partner with global pharmaceutical companies by offering dual-site risk mitigation.