Dive Brief:
- Chinese drugmaker WuXi Biologics plans to invest €325 million, or roughly $390 million, into building a biologics production plant in Dundalk, Ireland that it says will become the world's largest biomanufacturing facility using single-use bioreactors.
- WuXi will install 48,000 liters of fed-batch and 6,000 liters of perfusion bioreactor capacity at the 64-acre site, which will be designed to run continuous bioprocessing.
- The plant, investment into which was supported by Industrial Development Authority (IDA) Ireland, will create 400 new jobs over five years in addition to 700 construction jobs.
Dive Insight:
WuXi Biologics continues its breakneck expansion into the contract manufacturing field. Last December, the CMO began operations at a 500,000 square-foot plant in Wuxi City that it described at the time as the world's largest facility for the production of biologics using only single-use bioreactors.
Now it appears WuXi is looking to break its own record with its plans in Ireland.
"This is the start and a critical part of our global biomanufacturing network to ensure that biologics are manufactured at the highest quality and with a robust supply chain ...," said Chris Chen, CEO of WuXi Biologics, in a statement.
County Louth in Ireland, where WuXi's new plant will be located, is also home to one of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' commercial facilities, as well as high-tech businesses outside the biopharma sector including electronic payments firm PayPal.
"It's the first sizable greenfield project from China in the pharma sector and I am delighted to see it located here in Dundalk," said An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Prime Minister of Ireland, in a statement.
The new facility isn't the first foray into Ireland for WuXi Apptec Group, the parent company of WuXi Biologics. In January 2017, AbbVie, startup Genomics Medicine Ireland and WuXi NextCODE signed up to a 15-year strategic alliance to carry out population genomics research in Ireland. The project will focus on oncology, neuroscience and immunology.
As a group, WuXi Apptec is also expanding within China, which is the second-largest healthcare market by spending. Last week, STA Pharmaceutical, another WuXi subsidiary, signed an agreement to build a new R&D center in the Jinshan District of Shanghai. The site is designed to support preclinical development up through clinical trials and commercial launch.
WuXi Biologics, meanwhile, is the first contract manufacturer in China to have undergone a pre-license inspection by the Food and Drug Administration for the manufacture of a novel biologic, TaiMed Biologics' Trogarzo (ibalizumab-uiyk). Cleared in March to treat HIV, Trogarzo is the first approved sterile biologic manufactured in China for use under a U.S. investigational New Drug Application.