WuXi Biologics, part of WuXi AppTec, a Shanghai, China-headquartered contract service provider, plans to invest $60 million to establish a biologics clinical and commercial manufacturing facility in Worcester, Massachusetts. The facility will be WuXi Biologics’ eleventh global drug-substance manufacturing facility.
The facility is being designed for single-use bioreactors and to run continuous bioprocessing. A total of approximately 4,500 liters of bioreactor capacity will be installed with two 2,000-liter traditional fed-batch bioreactors and one 500-liter perfusion-based bioreactor for continuous processing. This facility will be equipped to handle both clinical and small-volume commercial production. An early-stage bioprocess development lab will also be included.
The company says it plans to hire approximately 150 employees for the new facility.