Fujifilm, which has been on a $1.6 billion expansion tear, will drop $188 million to build a cell culture media manufacturing facility in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park.
The facility will encompass more than 250,000 square feet on 64 acres, the company said in a Nov. 22 press release. The Japanese conglomerate's Fujifilm Irvine Scientific subsidiary will operate the site, where operations are scheduled to start by early 2025.
The plant will support bio-production and advanced therapies through production of animal component-free, dry powder, and liquid media. It will expand the Fujifilm unit’s capacity to 800,000 kilograms a year for dry powder, 3,300,000 liters a year for liquid and 40,000 liters a day of water for injection.
“The cell culture media that will be manufactured at this new site in North Carolina will help ensure a steady supply of raw materials for biologics, cell and gene therapies, and other key medicines that are essential to human health,” Yutaka Yamaguchi, chairman, and chief executive officer of Fujifilm Irvine Scientific, said in the release.
The expansion comes amid a growth spree for Fujifilm. In July, the company said it would shell out $1.6 billion to bulk up its cell culture manufacturing services at its CDMO facilities in Denmark and Texas.
As part of the project, the company planned to add eight 20,000-liter bioreactors in Denmark, bringing the total count there to 20. The site will also add two downstream processing streams.
In Texas, the company will expand cell culture manufacturing capabilities and enable continuous processing, Fujifilm said.