UCB opens Belgian pilot plant
pharmafile | September 17, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Amgen, Belgium, R&D, UCB
UCB has officially opened a new pilot biotech plant at its Braine-L’Alleud site in Belgium.
The 5,100 sq. m. facility – which cost more than €65 million to set up – will produce cell culture-based therapeutic proteins and will support UCB’s biologics development activities in the research and clinical trial phases.
The four bioreactors at the pilot facility have a total capacity of 3,200 litres and the unit is currently being validated alongside regulatory authorities. It is expected to become fully operational during 2013, when it will employ around 100 workers, and has been supported by the regional Walloon government.
UCB described the opening of the plant as an ‘important milestone’ that reinforces the firm’s commitment to biotechnology, with chief executive Roch Doliveux noting that biologics account for around half of the company’s current R&D pipeline.
“With this bio pilot plant, we will more rapidly initiate clinical studies of new antibody-based therapeutics that are addressing serious unmet medical needs”, he said.
UCB’s biggest biologic drug at the moment is rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease treatment Cimzia (certolizumab pegol) which achieved sales of €209 million in the first half of this year and is tipped to become a €1.5 billion brand at peak by the company.
Biologic drugs coming through the firm’s pipeline include: Amgen-partnered CDP7851, an anti-sclerostin antibody in Phase III trials for osteoporosis and Phase II for fracture healing; anti-CD22 antibody epratuzumab, which is in Phase III for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE); and rheumatoid arthritis candidate olokizumab, currently in Phase II testing, that targets interleukin-6.
UCB recently initiated a revamp of its manufacturing network, selling off three production facilities in Germany and Italy to UK-based contract manufacturer Aesica last year. Meanwhile, in 2010 it started construction of a microbial manufacturing facility in Bulle, Switzerland to help meet anticipated future demand for Cimzia. The Bulle facility is due to come online in 2015.
Phil Taylor
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