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www.biopharminternational.com Manufacturing and Facilities eBook 2023 BioPharm International ® 27 There were also several partnerships in tech trans- fer. As par t of t he Cel lares Technolog y Adoption Partnership program, Cellares expanded its agree- ment with Bristol Myers Squibb to include a second chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell program (6). Under the agreement, Bristol Myers Squibb will start a second proof-of-concept tech transfer process to manufacture its CAR-T cell therapy, which Cellares will then optimize, automate, and tech-transfer onto its automated manufacturing platform. BIOVECTRA and Acuitas Therapeutics also entered into a tech transfer agreement, announcing on October 5 that Acuitas' lipid nanoparticle technology platform will be transferred to BIOVECTRA's new biomanufactur- ing center, which is currently under construction (7). Facility openings and expansions There have been several facility openings and an- nouncements over the past few months. Industr y leaders such as Novo Nordisk and MilliporeSigma (Merck) as well as rising contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) like FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies are continuing to invest in new facilities across the manufacturing space. In late September, Novo Nordisk announced an investment of €127 million (US$136 million) into a new cell ther- apy manufacturing facility in Lyngby, Denmark (8). Located on the Technical University of Denmark cam- pus, the facility will be used for the final development steps and upscaling of cell therapies for human test- ing. Other European openings include MilliporeSig- ma's two new good manufacturing practice (GMP) manufacturing sites, GMP-grade messenger RNA (mRNA) drug substance manufacturing sites located in Darmstadt and Hamburg, Germany (9). These sites, part of a €1 billion (US$1.06 billion) investment, are part of the company's goal to advance mRNA tech- nologies and build a global mRNA network. ten23 also announced a capacity expansion for its Switzer- land-based sterile drug manufacturing facility (10). In the United Kingdom, FUJIFILM Diosynth Bio- technologies completed its Darlington facility, which is now able to carry out current GMP (CGMP) man- ufacture of viral vector-based gene therapies, on- colytic viruses, and viral vaccines for clinical trials (11). FUJIFILM announced the opening of its facility on September 14, stating that the company plans to address the increased demand for production of early-stage clinical trial investigational viral vector products. Also in the UK, cell and gene therapy man- ufacturing partner eXmoor pharma launched its new Cell and Gene Therapy GMP facility in Bristol (12) on October 11. Out side of Eu rope, some faci l it y open i ngs i n- cluded Wheeler Bio's Biomanufacturing Facility in Oklahoma City (13) and Gritgen Therapeautics' Com- mercial GMP Facilit y in China (14). The former, a drug substance CGMP facility, is intended to bolster Wheeler's efforts in aiding biotech innovators and startups accelerate their development at a fair price. Gritgen's facility will aid in the company's commer- cialization. Acquisitions As is the case in the rest of the industr y, the man- u fac t u r i ng sec tor is of ten home to mergers a nd acquisitions. On September 25, Biosynth, a Swiss- based critical materials supplier, announced the ac- quisition of Pepceuticals, a British manufacturer of synthetic peptides (15). With Pepceuticals' multi-ki- logram GMP facilities and fill/finish capabilities, Biosynth will be able to cover all phases of the pep- tide product life cycle. On October 5, Sharp, a packaging and clinical trial supply services company, announced the acquisition of Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing, a CDMO that of- fers clinical and commercial sterile injectable prod- ucts (16). Sharp stated that it hopes the acquisition w i l l a l low t he compa ny to of fer f u l ly integrated small-to-medium scale sterile injectable ser vices. Finally, Sterling Pharma Solutions announced in October that it acquired NewChem Technologies, a UK-based contract services provider focused on or- ganic chemistry and industry supply chains (17). As a global CDMO, Sterling's acquisition of NewChem will bolster Sterling's chemistry services, establish a place in development and scale-up, and find new ways to synthesize customer's molecules. References 1. Recipharm. Recipharm Partners with Ahead Thera- peutics to Develop Rare Autoimmune Disease Ther- apy. Sept. 5, 2023. 2. ScaleReady. CTMC Partners with ScaleReady to Au- tomate, Close, and Scale for Greater Patient Acces- sibility. Oct. 4, 2023. 3. GSK. GSK and Zhifei Announce Exclusive Strategic Vaccine Partnership in China. Oct. 9, 2023. 4. Forge Biologics. Forge Biologics Selected as an AAV Manufacturing Partner for California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to Help Accelerate Gene Therapy Programs. Oct. 11, 2023. 5. PeptideDream. PeptiDream Announces Collabora- tion and License Agreement with Genentech for the Discovery and Development of Novel PeptideRadio- isotope Drug Conjugates. Sept. 20, 2023. 6. Cellares. Cellares Announces Expanded Agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb to Include Second CAR-T Program in Cellares' Technology Adoption Partner- ship Program. Oct. 11, 2023. 7. BIOVECTR A. BIOVECTR A Signs Ser v ice Agree- ment with Acuitas Therapeutics for Unique Lipid Industry update