Fujifilm Invests $850M to Expand Biologics Capabilities

Fujifilm Corporation is making and $850 million investment to the grow its core Bio CDMO subsidiary, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, a biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) with over thirty years of experience in the development and manufacturing of recombinant proteins, vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, among other large molecules and viral products expressed in a wide array of microbial, mammalian, and host/virus systems.

The investment will increase Fujifilm Diosynth’s manufacturing capacity and double cell culture production for recombinant vaccines in the U.S. In the UK gene therapy production will be increased ten-fold, cell culture capacity will be tripled and microbial fermentation output at the existing 5,000L scale facility will be doubled. The UK cell culture expansion will also include cGMP capacity for continuous manufacturing. Process and analytical development capacity will also be added as part of this investment package. The expansions are scheduled to begin operating by late 2023.

Market growth for CDMO services, including outsourcing process development, analytical development, bulk drug substance manufacturing, fill/finish and finished goods (packaging) production, is expected to continue due to increasing demand for biotherapeutics such as antibodies, gene therapy treatments and vaccines against new infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

“Fujifilm will never stop in its relentless pursuit to develop new technologies and provide the necessary manufacturing capacity to meet the needs of our customers and accelerate the growth of its Bio CDMO business,” said Teiichi Goto, president, Fujifilm Corporation. “We will contribute to promoting a healthy society and developing the healthcare industry by providing a stable supply of high-quality biopharmaceuticals with our advanced technologies and facilities.”