TOKYO – Japan’s Fujifilm has announced plans to invest approximately 200 billion yen (US$1.45 billion) to expand its biopharmaceutical production capacity by 3.7 times over the next five years.
Management expects this to support a 3.3 times increase in annual Bio-CDMO revenue to 500 billion yen ($3.7 billion) by the end of the decade. Bio-CDMO is short for Biologics Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization – an organization that serves pharmaceutical companies that cannot afford to or prefer not to invest in their own production facilities.
Fujifilm is the third East Asian CDMO to announce a major expansion plan, the others being China’s WuXi Biologics and South Korea’s Samsung Biologics. By the end of the decade, these and other East Asian companies are likely to have a defining presence in the industry.
The 200 billion yen will be spent on a new building, bioreactors, purification facilities and other equipment at the company’s manufacturing complex in Denmark, making it the largest end-to-end CDMO facility in Europe.