FUJIFILM plans $1.2 billion investment in major US manufacturing facility

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FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US.

This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.

Benefits of the manufacturing expansion

“This investment is an important step to further accelerate the growth of our biopharmaceutical CDMO business,” stated Teiichi Goto, President and Chief Executive Officer, Representative Director, FUJIFILM Corporation.

“Significant” large-scale production capacity will consequently be added to FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ global network.

The expansion means identical large-scale production facilities can be built in US and Europe to support integration drug manufacturing production “regardless of location”, FUJIFILM explained.

The new investment in the Holly Springs facility will “add 8 x 20,000 L mammalian cell culture bioreactors by 2028, to the already planned 8 x 20,000 L for bulk drug substance as part of the initial investment”.

This new facility allows for flexibility to expand with additional bioreactors to accommodate new projects, according to FUJIFILM.

Based on these aspects, when the facility is complete, the site will be one of the largest cell culture biopharmaceutical CDMO facilities in North America, FUJIFILM noted.

“We are pleased to continue investing to grow our cell culture manufacturing capabilities in North Carolina in anticipation of the growing outsourcing needs of biopharma companies,” commented Toshihisa Iida, Corporate Vice President of FUJIFILM Corporation and Chairman of FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies.

Sustainability

To support the delivery of net-zero operations at the facility, FUJIFILM stated that all energy needs for operations is anticipated to be “100 percent offset through the use of renewable landfill gas, onsite solar and the 125,000 MWh of annual sustainable solar energy from a virtual power purchase agreement”.

Furthermore, the company shared that an additional 680 jobs will be created by 2031 due to the expansion.