Company chooses Texas city for new $300 million facility
(The Center Square) – Another company is expanding its operations in Texas, adding to a list of multi-million and billion-dollar companies fueling population growth and jobs in the Lone Star State.
FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies is creating a $300 million campus in College Station-Bryan near Texas A&M’s campus. The new construction will expand its single-use manufacturing campus in College Station by adding a new production facility to double its advanced therapy and vaccine manufacturing capacity in the U.S.
It received a $1.5 million Texas Enterprise Fund grant to help create roughly 150 high-skilled jobs, including manufacturing and operations by 2024.
FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies is a partnership between FUJIFILM Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation, a world-leading contract development and manufacturing organization that develops and manufactures biopharmaceuticals and viral gene therapies.
The company is investing $300 million to construct the facility as part of a previously announced $850 million global capital investment package initially announced in June 2021. The company says that the investment expands its manufacturing capabilities to better support its current and future partners in advancing their life-impacting products.
This new facility is expected to be operational by 2024, grow the existing site to 300,000 sq. ft and house multiple 500L and 2,000L bioreactors and associated purification equipment deploying single-use technology.
The company’s COO Gerry Farrell said, “the biopharmaceutical industry’s need for manufacturing capacity continues to grow rapidly. Committed to being a partner for life for our customers, we will continue to invest in the right technology and talent to support our partners in bringing to market these life-impacting medicines.”
FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies offers “complete solutions in pharmaceutical manufacturing – from pre-clinical investigations and process development to commercial cGMP production,” according to its website.
Its expansion “will bring more opportunities for Texans to develop life-saving technology and treatment,” Gov. Greg Abbott said, noting that “the biotechnology industry is growing at a tremendous rate in Texas.”
State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, is a pharmacist and physician. He said he understands “the importance of encouraging our state’s growing biopharmaceutical industry.”
He said the Brazos Valley, which he represents, “is an ideal setting for this kind of expansion due to its business-friendly environment and the ability to recruit world-class scientific minds from Texas A&M University.”
The new state-of-the-art facility will help the local community “play a significant role in meeting market demands of life-saving solutions,” state Rep. John Raney, R-College Station, added.
College Station Mayor Karl Mooney noted that the company has been impacting the region since 2014 when it first came to the city. It “has been a trusted partner with College Station and the entire Brazos Valley … and its already impressive operations here will make a positive impact on our community for years to come,” he added.
In addition to its College Station location, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies also has operations in North Carolina, the U.K. and Denmark.
Its Texas announcement comes two weeks after it announced a £400 million planned investment at its U.K. facility in Billingham, Teesside. The British expansion project is also expected to create up to 350 high-skilled jobs and become the largest multi-modal biopharmaceutical manufacturing site in the U.K.
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