Company to Expand Animal Cell Bioreactors and Add New Microorganism Facilities
TOKYO/PRNewswire/ -- AGC (Headquarters: Tokyo; President: Takuya Shimamura) has announced a major enhancement to its production capacity of biopharmaceutical manufacturing services at AGC Biologics (Headquarters: US), a CDMO*1 subsidiary of the company.
AGC Biologics plans to install an additional twelve 2,000L single-use*2 animal cell bioreactors at their Seattle site, as well as establish a brand new contract development and manufacturing facility for microbial manufacturing, a function that was previously only operated in Europe and Japan. This expansion will triple AGC's biopharmaceutical production capacity in the US while also ensuring seamless operation of microbial and animal cell based biopharmaceutical CDMO activities across the Japan, Europe, and the US regions. The total investment of this expansion is estimated to be about ¥10 billion yen ($90 million US Dollars), with full-scale operations slated from July 2020.
Under its AGC plus management policy, the AGC Group has made a commitment to positioning life-sciences related business as one of its strategic initiatives, aiming at sales in the ¥100 billion yen range by 2025. AGC has developed manufacturing and sales bases in Europe and the US through the acquisitions of Biomeva in 2016 and CMC Biologics in 2017. Since then, the company has consolidated the operations under the AGC Biologics brand and has been making aggressive investments in equipment and facilities at its locations across Japan, Europe, and the US.
In order to continue providing our customers consistent top-level quality and service, AGC intends to pursue necessary acquisitions and capital investments in the synthetic and biopharmaceutical business. Gustavo Mahler, CEO of AGC Biologics stated, "We expect significant growth in demand during the coming years. By maximizing synergies among our operations, AGC will continue to pursue its goal of being a leading company that supports pharmaceutical companies, medical patients, and all of society."
Notes
1 CDMO: Contract Development & Manufacturing Organization. A company which is contracted or acts on behalf of another company to handle product manufacturing as well as the development of manufacturing methods.
2 Single-use: Culture tanks that use a disposable vessel.
AGC Biologics Media Contact Information:
Robert J. Broeze, PhD
Chief Business Officer
Email: rbroeze@agcbio.com
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