Clean Cells to invest €13 million to create Europe's largest cell bank production site

The expansion is anticipated to speed up development and time-to-market of novel treatments and vaccines for COVID‑19

Clean Cells, a provider of biopharmaceutical product quality control services and manufacturer of starting materials, is to invest €13 million ($15.3 million) for a new production facility in Montaigu‑Vendée (France).

The last 2 years have witnessed a strong upward trend in the production of cell banks for vaccines and therapeutic antibodies — a situation that has pushed Clean Cells, which is part of the Clean Biologics group, to maximum capacity.

By quadrupling its analysis and production capacity for biopharmaceuticals, the group intends to speed up the development and time-to-market of novel treatments and vaccines for COVID‑19.

Increasing the number of its production suites from five to nine, the company will nearly double its production capacity of cell banks for vaccines, therapeutic antibodies and gene therapies.

The new 5,300-m2 laboratories will become the largest site in Europe for biopharmaceuticals quality control services and production of cell banks for innovative drugs.

The construction of the new facility, which started in July 2021, should be completed by September 2022 and will create 80 new jobs, with opportunities available for both engineers and technicians, as well as roles in scientific, logistical, administrative and sales support.

The new site will give Clean Cells access to important additional biopharmaceutical quality control capacity, significantly decreasing time-to-market for these products in Europe. The expansion project, therefore, goes hand-in-hand with France’s strategy of returning industrial activity to French soil.

Clean Cells says it will maintain its capacity for manufacturing virus banks; it will also quadruple its capacity for biosafety tests, allowing the company to respond to the increased demand from existing and new clients.