‘Largest biopharma CMO in Asia’ gets green light
pharmafile | March 25, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Biomanufacturing, CMO, manufacturing
A US biotechnology company is spearheading a project to create what will be the largest biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing organisation in Asia.
California-headquartered AutekBio, which provides contract research and manufacturing services via a wholly-owned subsidiary in Beijing, China, said the investment in the facility will be in the region of $100 million.
Financial backing for the project comes from venture capital firms SUMA Ventures and Beijing E-Town Harvest International, a VC operated by Beijing’s municipal government.
“This joint effort … represents strong interests from both the private investment sector and government to establish world quality capability and capacity in biopharmaceutical manufacturing in China,” said the partners in a joint statement.
The new joint venture will build up a “world class” R&D and manufacturing centre in southern Beijing, with total bioreactor volumes of up to 20,000 litres in multiple production lines (trains). The project will draw on AutekBio’s expertise in cell development, large scale and high yield mammalian cell culture and protein purification.
Julius Li, chief executive of AutekBio, said that the new facility and the JV will provide the first biopharmaceutical manufacturing services in China that fully conform to the relevant US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) standards.
According to Li, the facility will provide to the international biotech arena high quality yet cost efficient solutions in producing protein based medicines. The firm will also benefit from financial, regulatory and other supports from the Chinese government for the biotech industry.
The development provides further evidence of the advance of China and other Asian countries as hubs for both contract manufacturing and multinational pharmaceutical companies hoping to cut costs.
Market research specialist Frost & Sullivan has predicted that China’s CMO market could top $2 billion in 2010, four times its size in 2007.
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