Fujifilm to invest over $2B in US CDMO site

In an effort to speed up the growth of its biopharma contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), Fujifilm Corporation will invest over $2 billion to build a new large-scale cell culture production site in the US. This news comes only two days after the company announced a $40 million investment toward the construction of a Boston-area, advanced therapy facility that will manufacture viral vectors.

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, a Fujifilm subsidiary with locations in the US, UK and Denmark, will be in charge of the new facility. The new location, which has not been named yet, is scheduled to begin operations in the spring of 2025, and will be constructed near a current Fujifilm site.

It is expected to offer large-scale cell culture manufacturing of bulk drug substances with 8 x 20,000L bioreactors (physical volume), with the potential to expand and add further 24 x 20,000L bioreactors based on market demand. Besides manufacturing drug substances, the facility will also provide commercial scale, automated fill-finish and assembly, packaging and labeling services.

Fujifilm has been actively seek investment opportunities to further develop its offerings across its Bio CDMO sites—most recently, in June 2020, the company put $928 million towards Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies' Hillerød, Denmark site, as part of its initiative to double large-scale cell culture manufacturing capacity and add commercial scale drug production capabilities.