Thermo Fisher, GRAM, Altasciences, Sartorius Expanding

The latest from CDMOs, CMOs, and suppliers featuring Thermo Fisher Scientific, Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing, Avantor, Sartorius, Altasciences, and Fujifilm Irvine Scientific.

Biologics Manufacturing

Thermo Fisher Investing $82.5 M To Expand Biologics Drug-Substance Mfg Facility
Thermo Fisher Scientific is investing $82.5 million to expand operations at its biologic drug- substance manufacturing facility in St. Louis, Missouri. The announcement was made by the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership.

Thermo Fisher’s current commercial biologics manufacturing footprint in St. Louis is 360,000 square feet with approximately 700 employees. The new project will include a 58,000-square-foot expansion with two new manufacturing suites and the addition of nearly $15 million in new manufacturing machinery and equipment over a two-year period, including the new ability to provide manufacturing and production support at both the 5,000-L processing scale as well as continued support at the 2,000-L processing scale.

Source: St. Louis Economic Development Partnership


Fujifilm Irvine Scientific Completes Construction of Cell-Culture Media Mfg Facility
Fujifilm Irvine Scientific, a manufacturer of cell-culture media, reagents, and medical devices for researchers and clinicians, has completed construction and started the commissioning phase of a new cell-culture media manufacturing facility in Tilburg, the Netherlands.

The commissioning phase marks the beginning of validating the facility and equipment in anticipation of full operations starting in late 2021.

The Tilburg facility occupies approximately 250,000 square feet previously used by Fujifilm Manufacturing Europe to manufacture photo paper, offset plates, and membranes. The facility will manufacture dry-powder media, liquid media, buffers, and water for injection in accordance with the same quality system, raw materials, and expertise used in the company’s facilities in the US and Japan. Initially, it will increase the company’s production capacity with greater than 320,000 kg/year of dry-powder media and greater than 470,000 L/year of liquids.

Source: Fujifilm Irvine Scientific


Sartorius Expanding with New Business Ops Site
Sartorius, a provider of products and services for the life sciences, is expanding with a new 130,000-square-foot business operations plant in Ann Arbor, Michigan, set to open in late 2023.

Sartorius will have a presence in the Tech Loop at the Ann Arbor Research Park. The company has purchased over 15 acres of land, which provides space for further expansion. The project is expected to create 160 jobs over three years (as reported on September 27, 2021). These jobs will include product development, operations, and other support functions.

The Ann Arbor site is part of Sartorius’ ongoing global expansion. By 2025, Sartorius says it will more than double capacities for its key product groups.

Source: Sartorius


Avantor, Oxford Nanopore in Global Distribution Pact
Avantor, a supplier of ultra-high-purity materials for the life-sciences and advanced technology industries, has entered into a global distribution agreement with Oxford Nanopore Technologies, a manufacturer of DNA/RNA sequencing instruments, kits, and consumables.

The agreement provides distribution by Avantor for portable DNA/RNA sequencing technology, including Oxford Nanopore’s nanopore sequencing device, MinION, associated consumables, and reagents.

As part of the agreement, Avantor’s Sales and Life Science Specialist teams will provide local support for MinION. The agreement also includes distribution for MinION devices and consumables starting in September 2021 for the US (including Puerto Rico) and Europe, including the UK, Norway and Switzerland. Other regions, including Canada, will be added in 2022.

Source: Avantor and Oxford Nanopore Technologies


Formulation Development/Drug-Product Manufacturing

GRAM Expanding Fill-Finish Capacity
Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing (GRAM), a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based provider of sterile-manufacturing services, is expanding fill-finish capacity at its facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

GRAM’s latest expansion increases the footprint of the company’s large-scale fill-finish facility by 18,000 square feet to bring the total square footage across all its facilities to 230,000 square feet. The Phase I expansion of the facility opened in June 2020.

The existing large-scale fill-finish facility uses equipment and technology from Bausch+Ströbel, SKAN, and IMA. The Phase II expansion includes a new syringe and vial filler and an additional Bausch+Ströbel Vial Filler with SKAN Isolator Technology.

Source: Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing


Altasciences Expanding Formulation Development, Mfg, Warehousing Facilities
Altasciences, a CDMO of formulation development, manufacturing, and analytical services, has announced the continued expansion of its formulation, manufacturing, and analytical services facilities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The company’s first warehouse expansion started earlier this year (2021) and is expected to be ready for use by the end of 2021. The 35,000-square-foot space, acquired in December 2020, is directly adjacent to Altasciences’ existing facility. The new space will be configured to include an approximate 8,750-square-foot warehouse, an approximate 8,750-square-foot Grade C/D manufacturing area, and a 17,500-square-foot client-dedicated cGMP manufacturing area.

In addition, Altasciences has expanded into a new 53,000-square-foot, client-dedicated facility for formulation development and Phase I through to commercial manufacturing. This new project is expected to be completed in 2023.

Source: Altasciences