The facility – ownership of which will transfer to Carbogen in January – will make active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) under good manufacturing practices (GMP) compliant condition according to the Swiss firm, which expects production to begin in 2017.
The GEA plant is 300 meters from an existing production facility at which Carbogen provides process optimization services and makes drug actives for late-phase clinical trials, commercial supply.
Spokeswoman Lucie Framinet told us the acquisition was prompted by increasing demand from customers.
“This acquisition has been mainly made to support our business growth and company expansion as well as to face significant and continuous increase in customers’ demand for additional capacity.
ADC expansion
The GEA facility will also “support our ADC capacity from early phase up to commercial scale” according to Framinet
Carbogen has made a number of investments in its antibody drug conjugate (ADC) production offering in the past few years.
In 2013 it partnered with St Asaph, Wales based specialist ADC Biotechnology and set up dedicated clean room capacity at the Bubendorf site and another facility in Riom, France.
More recently Carbogen signed a long-term lease agreement with chemicals and biotechnology firm Bachem to take over a high-containment unit it owns in Vionnaz, Switzerland.
Although the project conducted with ADC Biotechnology is now completed the "Vionnaz is growing and is currently undergoing several expansion projects" Framinet said.