Already with a manufacturing site in Chiba, Japan, AGC Biologics is doubling down on its presence in the country with a new facility in Yokohama.
The Seattle-based CDMO has unveiled its plan to construct a four-story complex, which will cover 20,000 square meters (215,000 square feet) and is expected to become operational in 2026. It will support preclinical through commercial production for mammalian-based protein biologics, cell therapies and messenger RNA therapies, AGC said.
Helping foot the bill, which comes to an investment of 50 billion Japanese yen ($350 million), is Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The project falls under the country’s initiative to bolster its vaccine production.
“With an increased demand in this region for high-quality partners that have a history of clinical and commercial biopharmaceutical manufacturing, we are making this investment to offer developers the services they need, and strengthen our global CDMO network,” Patricio Massera, CEO of AGC Biologics, said in a release.
An hour away—in a circular trip around Tokyo Bay in Chiba—AGC is the lone global manufacturer in Japan with mammalian and microbial production capabilities, according to the company.
In August of last year, AGC completed the expansion of its gene therapy production site in Milan, which it acquired in 2020 from MolMed. The capacity boost is aligned with AGC’s overall push in gene therapy manufacturing. And in 2021, the company purchased a Longmont, Colorado, cell and gene therapy facility from Novartis.
In October of last year, AGC also completed an expansion at its mRNA and plasmid DNA (pDNA) production facility in Heidelberg, Germany. From the site, AGC has supplied Pfizer and BioNTech with pDMA as the starting material for their COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty.
Further, AGC last year signed up to produce Provention Bio’s Type 1 diabetes treatment Tzield at its Seattle biologics facility. Provention has since been purchased by Sanofi in a $2.9 billion buyout.