Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies has announced continued expansion of its process development capabilities with the investment of over US$5.6m in new laboratories and equipment at both its Billingham, UK and Research Triangle Park (RTP), NC, USA sites. This includes the first TAP ambr250 automated bioreactor system for microbial fermentations to be commercially installed in a CDMO at the company’s Billingham, UK site. This investment further demonstrates the company’s commitment to use High Throughput technology and design of experiments to benefit its customers by rapid development of robust scalable processes for their biopharmaceutical production.

Also at the UK site, three laboratories have been upgraded and refurbished to accommodate the latest equipment, including new robotic chromatography platforms.

At the company’s RTP, NC site, four new process development labs have been added along with new equipment to allow greater flexibility for client project execution. This new equipment and expanded laboratory floor space for both process design and analytical support have significantly increased the development capacity for customer projects at the site.

Dr Mark Carver, senior VP, R&D and Innovation, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies says, “The purchase of this latest equipment, and upgrading of our laboratories across the business, keeps us at the forefront of technology for the development of robust and cost-effective manufacturing processes for biologics. Our ambr15 system has been working continuously since its installation in our mammalian cell culture laboratories 15 months ago, and we look forward to broadening our offering also to microbial fermentations by running multiple, single-use fermentations on this firstly-introduced ambr250. All of this new equipment, combined with the experimental design expertise of our highly trained scientists will allow us to produce ‘High Throughput Scale Down’ data for better process understanding, thereby enabling our customers to proceed more quickly to larger scale manufacture.”

He added “this investment forms part of our ongoing innovation activity and our commitment to lead the global Biologics CDMO industry through the continuous innovation of technologies, service delivery and quality for the benefit of our customers and their patients.”