- FUJIFILM Biotechnologies has opened a £400m expansion at its Teesside, UK site, including what it describes as the largest single-use biopharmaceutical CDMO facility in the UK.
- The expansion adds up to 19,000 L of single-use capacity and introduces a new Bioprocess Innovation Centre UK to support process development and GMP manufacturing.
FUJIFILM Biotechnologies has celebrated the grand opening of its expanded Teesside site, backed by an investment of approximately £400m from FUJIFILM Corporation, Japan. The expansion includes the largest single-use biopharmaceutical CDMO facility in the UK, according to the BDO bioTRAK database as of October 2024, and strengthens the company’s contract manufacturing network for biologics, vaccines and advanced therapies.
The 110,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility, expected to be operational in the first half of 2026, introduces 2,000 L and 5,000 L single-use bioreactors, providing a total capacity of up to 19,000 L for small- and mid-scale antibody production. The expansion forms part of the company’s global CDMO manufacturing network and is designed to support customer programmes with flexible scale-up options. The site aligns with Fujifilm’s kojoX modular approach, enabling harmonised technology, equipment and processes across locations, including its Toyama facility in Japan, to facilitate technology transfer.
Alongside the manufacturing expansion, the company opened the 102,200 sq. ft. Bioprocess Innovation Centre UK (BIC UK). The facility doubles the campus’s laboratory footprint and delivers high-throughput and continuous process development capabilities, as well as expanded Good Manufacturing Practice quality control functions. The site supports development through to early clinical manufacturing and commercial biologics production.
“Over the past decade, Fujifilm has invested more than £5 billion globally to grow our CDMO business – demonstrating our steadfast commitment to increasing our production capacity and capabilities to meet the growing demand for innovative medicines and vaccines for patients around the globe.”
Toshihisa Iida, director, corporate vice president and general manager of Life Sciences Strategy Headquarters and Bio CDMO Division, FUJIFILM Corporation, and chairman of FUJIFILM Biotechnologies
In a statement provided to PharmaSource, a Fujifilm spokesperson said: “As the first small and mid-scale manufacturing site in our global kojoX ecosystem, a purpose-built standardised framework to provide speed and supply agility, we offer partners a scalable pathway from process development to commercial, helping close the gap in access to medicines.”
The Teesside campus employs more than 960 staff and forms part of FUJIFILM Biotechnologies’ global workforce of 5,000. The new manufacturing building will be fully electrified, with a target to run on 100% renewable electricity by 2030.
