Amgen Breaks Ground on US $200-Million Biomanufacturing Plant

Amgen has broken ground for a new biomanufacturing plant that will be constructed at its West Greenwich, Rhode Island campus. The new plant, worth up to $200 million, will manufacture products for the US and global markets.

Amgen has labeled the new plant as “next-generation.” “A next-generation biomanufacturing plant incorporates multiple innovative technologies into a single facility, and therefore is built in half the construction time with approximately one half of the operating cost of a traditional plant,” Amgen said in a July 31, 2018 company statement. “Next-generation biomanufacturing plants require a smaller manufacturing footprint and offer greater environmental benefits, including reduced consumption of water and energy and lower levels of carbon emissions. Within the plant, the equipment is portable, smaller and some components are disposable, which provides greater flexibility and speed when manufacturing different medicines simultaneously. This eliminates costly and complex retrofitting inherent in standard facilities and allows Amgen to respond to changing demands for its medicines with increased agility, ultimately impacting the speed at which a medicine is available for patients,” said the company.

Amgen expects to invest up to $200 million in the approximately 120,000-square-foot manufacturing plant. The plant is expected to create approximately 150 additional manufacturing positions.

Amgen Rhode Island has been in place since 2002, and its existing Rhode Island plant was licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration in September 2005 and houses a mammalian protein manufacturing facility. The facility manufactures commercial and clinical bulk drug substance. Amgen says it has invested more than $1.5 billion in its Rhode Island campus, adding more than 500,000 square feet of manufacturing, utility, administrative and laboratory space to the campus. There are approximately 625 full-time staff members employed at the Amgen Rhode Island campus.

In 2014, Amgen completed construction of a $200-million biomanufacturing facility in Tuas Biomedical Park in Singapore. Built in less than two years, the biomanufacturing facility was completed in half the time required for conventional biomanufacturing plants. It uses single-use bioreactors, disposable plastic containers, continuous purification processing, and real-time quality analysis.

Source: Amgen

 

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