UCB plans €250m plant to meet Cimzia demand
pharmafile | December 29, 2010 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Cimzia, Switzerland, UCB, pharma manufacturing
Belgian biotechnology company UCB has started construction of a new microbial manufacturing facility in Bulle, Switzerland to help meet demand for its rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease treatment Cimzia.
The company said that the new production plant is expected to be operational in 2015 and will require an investment of 250 million euros in two phases. The biologics investment comes shortly after UCB sold off three chemical production facilities to UK contract manufacturer Aesica.
Currently a large component of Cimzia manufacturing is carried out by contract partners such as Lonza, which is nearing the end of a six-year agreement to produce the drug’s active pharmaceutical ingredient certolizumab pegol at its Lonza Biotec facility in Visp, Switzerland.
UCB’s vice president for technical operations and quality Michele Antonelli stressed that the aim is to meet the projected future demand for 2015 and beyond for Cimzia with the addition of internal capacity to the existing capacities offered by production partners.
The company’s chief executive Roch Doliveux said earlier this month that Cimzia – an injectable drug – is on track to achieve sales of 1.5 billion euros a year before 2020, despite looming competition from orally-active rivals, such as Pfizer’s tasocitinib.
“Our site in Bulle is the right place and most cost effective location to build our own biotech manufacturing unit which enables us to further improve our productivity at attractive terms,” said Antonelli.
The new facility comes on the back of UCB’s investment in a 5,100 sq.m. mammalian cell pilot plant – currently under construction in Braine l’Alleud, Belgium – which Antonelli said will “strengthen our ability to deliver our future biological products”.
The pilot plant will have four bioreactors with a total capacity of 3,200 litres and is expected to begin operations in 2012, with a staff of around 100.
Phil Taylor
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