Avid Bioservices, a wholly owned subsidiary of Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, reports that it will upgrade its Myford clinical and commercial manufacturing facility in Orange County, CA, with multiple Mobius® 2000-liter single-use bioreactors from MilliporeSigma. The new bioreactors, to be installed in mid 2017, will expand the company’s manufacturing capacity.
“An integral part of our complete single-use offering, Mobius bioreactors help companies like Avid move toward the goal of fully disposable manufacturing,” said Udit Batra, Ph.D., member of the executive board of Merck KGaA and CEO, MilliporeSigma. “We will continue to support Avid as it upgrades its facility to help customers advance molecules into the clinic and to market so that patients have better access to life-enhancing drugs.”
Single-use technology is becoming increasingly popular in the industry. The market for single-use bioprocessing is estimated to reach $5.9 billion by 2024, according to Transparency Market Research. More than 90% of biopharma facilities use single-use technologies, according to Bioplan Associates.
“We ran a competitive process and chose the MilliporeSigma Mobius 2000-liter single-use bioreactor system because it offers technical and ease of use advantages over competing single-use systems,” said Steven W. King, president, Avid Bioservices. “The confidence in the choice has only been further reinforced by our experience to date with the Mobius system up to the 1000-liter scale as part of a pilot program. Adding the Mobius technology to expand Avid’s Myford biomanufacturing capacity highlights our commitment to offer customers the latest single-use equipment and flexible solutions.” King added that the first 2000-liter pilot batch is planned for later this month.
“The planned installation of MilliporeSigma’s Mobius 2000-liter bioreactors opens new opportunities for current and future Avid customers who require greater manufacturing capacity,” continued King. “We have already secured customer commitments for the 2000-liter capacity as soon as it is installed in our Myford facility and believe the advanced technology it offers will be a key factor in continuing to grow our contract development and manufacturing organization business.”
Avid has installed the appropriate systems at its Myford facility to allow integration of Mobius bioreactors. The 40,000-square foot Myford facility was designed to accommodate a fully disposable biomanufacturing process for late Phase III clinical and commercial biologics production. The facility can operate multiple bioreactors simultaneously, improving manufacturing capacity and efficiency.
