Biotechpharma UAB expanding production

Besides the expansion of its fermentation capacity to 5,000L, the CDMO added a state of the art process development laboratory to its new production site in Vilnius investing more than €50m.

Dr. Vladas Bumelis, Chairman of the Board of Biotechpharma UAB, stated, “The expansion comes amid growing global demand for flexible and responsive outsourcing partners that are able to support the full product lifecycle, from upstream and downstream process development and optimization to GMP manufacturing of drug substance and formulated drug product.”

Demand in mammalian cell-based and microbial production of biologics has been grown along with the biologics market (CGAR 9%). Microbial fermentation currently faces a significan boost which is triggered by the upcoming new drug class of live biotherapeutic products.

Biotechpharma’s new plant adds a new line of bioreactors, which will allow microbial fermentation at 5,000L scale, along with the necessary equipment for downstream processing operations. Flexible facility design will also allow for increased mammalian cell culture production capacities in addition to the already existing two lines of 1000-L and 2000-L for mammalian cell production, both equipped with single use bioreactors. Completion of the plant, which should be operational in Q4 2020, will result in an increase in Biotechpharma’s volume capacity by nearly a factor of two.

“With this latest expansion and plans for continued growth, we are better positioned than ever to meet the growing global demand for these specialized capabilities – and to become a fully integrated biopharmaceutical CDMO.” Said Frank Ternes, CBO of Biotechpharma