Japan based FUJIFILM Corporation has announced that it will invest approximately 9 billion yen ($83M USD) to expand the microbial production capacity of FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB), a world leading cGMP Contract Development & Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) supporting its partners in the biopharmaceutical industry with the development and production of their biologics, vaccines and gene therapies.

The expansion will be made in its United Kingdom site and is scheduled to be operational after 2022. It will triple FDB's current capacity of microbial production at the United Kingdom site.

Fujifilm's investment in the United Kingdom site will allow FDB to respond to the increased demand of microbial expressed therapies. The expansion will include a new production line equipped with 2 X 2000L fermenters and a modular purification suite. The utilities at the facility will be upgraded to accommodate for high volume production.

Fujifilm aims to achieve sales of 100 billion yen in the Bio CDMO business* in FY2021 while maintaining its commitment to support the delivery of wide variety of therapies including recombinant proteins, antibodies, hormones, viral vectors and vaccines by our customers through the stable supply of high-quality product, solve social issues such as responding to unmet medical needs, and contribute to the development of the healthcare industry.