Officials at Cytiva and Pall, part of Danaher, said they will expand manufacturing capacity and services across geographies for global life sciences customers. A $1.5 billion two-year investment, already underway, includes new sites, expansion at existing factories, and is in addition to previously announced investments. It follows five acquisitions made by the companies so far this year.
“Our customers tell us they need access to manufacturing agility, a robust global supply chain, and more regional options,” noted Emmanuel Ligner, Danaher Group executive. “This investment further fuels our expansion program so we can rapidly meet the current and future needs of our customers and ultimately, their patients.”
Cytiva’s and Pall’s capacity expansion will increase the manufacture of key products used to make biologic medicines, added Ligner. The companies are investing $600+ million in chromatography resins and establishing a new manufacturing site in the United States, $400+ million in cell culture media and expanding operations in the United States, the U.K., and Austria, $300+ million in single-use technologies, and expanding operations in the United States and the U.K., as well as fitting out a new facility in Cardiff, Wales, and $200+ million for continuing expansion work in Cytiva’s and Pall’s sites across China and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, and the United States.
This investment also addresses some of the key challenges highlighted in the Global Biopharma Resilience Index, conducted by Longitude, a Financial Times company, and published by Cytiva in March. These include hiring and training talent, R&D collaboration, supply chain resilience, manufacturing models, as well as government policy and regulation.
Rapid expansion program
Funds will be allocated immediately to accelerate capacity expansion plans already underway at 13 Pall and Cytiva sites making biotechnology products for COVID-19 and other critical programs. For example, the production of cell culture media at Cytiva’s site in Logan, UT, is planned to double in 2023. This will be done by converting 25,000 m2 of land into new manufacturing lines, distribution hubs, and clean rooms as well as creating 250 new jobs locally. Combined with the acquisition of Intermountain Life Sciences by Cytiva in June, a manufacturer of liquid cell culture media and buffers, customers being supplied out of Logan will see shorter lead times in the delivery of those products, according to a Cytiva news release.
The $1.5 billion investment follows Cytiva’s announcement in 2020 to spend $500 million building capacity. The investment has already funded a new manufacturing facility in Shrewsbury, MA, and a new cleanroom in Westborough, MA. A new cell and gene therapy manufacturing site and Center of Excellence is scheduled to open in Switzerland in 2022.
As part of the announced investment, Pall will expand single-use manufacturing operations in China at the site of recently acquired Austar. Plans are also underway to expand Cytiva’s partnership with Wego in China to build more single-use technology manufacturing capacity for the region. Both companies plan for further regional investment in the future.
New facilities
A new 11,000 m2 facility in Cardiff, Wales, is being fitted out to manufacture single-use bioprocessing equipment including jumper tubing assemblies, cell bags, and ÄKTA flow kits. The first products are expected to be manufactured at this site before the end of 2021. A local hiring drive has begun to fill 250 new jobs over the next two years, primarily in manufacturing, as well as warehouse operators, material handlers, and R&D scientists.
The vision for the new U.S. facility is to replicate and complement Cytiva’s resin manufacturing capabilities at its site in Uppsala, Sweden, pointed out a Cytiva official. The location of the new site will be announced at a later date. Cytiva plans to hire 400 people in the United States and Sweden over the next two years to facilitate expansion plans.
Overall, the companies are planning to hire 2,000 people over the next two years to support growth. This is in addition to the 2,000 new associates hired by Cytiva and Pall over the last year. The approach considers the well-established skills gap in the biotechnology industry. For example, training for manufacturing roles will involve intensive on-site courses. Onboarding for highly technical roles will leverage Cytiva’s FastTrak centers and online training designed in partnership with the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) in Dublin, Ireland.
Supporting the biotechnology industry through rapid growth requires access to innovative technologies as well as manufacturing capacity.
“We envision a world in which access to life-changing therapies transforms human health. Our investments and acquisitions are about building capacity and the therapeutic development workflow to advance and accelerate the work of our customers,” said Ligner.
Recent acquisitions
Recent acquisitions by Pall and Cytiva include:
- Vanrx Pharmasystems, Canada (Acquired by Cytiva in February 2021) Drug product aseptic filling solutions which automate the preparation of small batches of biologic medicines, well suited to the manufacture of cell and gene therapies.
- Austar, China (Acquired by Pall in March 2021) Additional single-use technology manufacturing capabilities in China to help meet the need for regional vaccine manufacturing, driven by COVID-19.
- GoSilico, Germany (Acquired by Cytiva in June 2021) Mechanistic modeling software to create “digital twin” simulations of downstream bioprocessing steps for more efficient chromatography and drug manufacturing process development.
- Precision NanoSystems, Canada (Acquired by Pall in June 2021) Manufacturing and development of lipid nanoparticles for the delivery of genetic medicines, including mRNA vaccines and therapeutics.
- The previously mentioned acquisition of Intermountain Life Sciences by Cytiva.
