During this global pandemic, the world has come to learn about CMOs, which help manufacture vaccines and treatments for the virus that has halted commerce and everyday activity. International CMOs have partnered with influential pharmaceutical companies and researchers in order to mass produce the life-saving medicines the world needs to carry on. Some of these investments cost these companies billions in order to move medical progress forward.
New plants, new equipment, new management systems — all of these things had to be devised and implemented despite the challenges each company faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. While these companies were already global leaders, they rose to the occasion when it came to bringing new innovations and new ideas to the forefront.
The Leading CMOs And Their Successes
Many CMOs successfully pushed new expansions in 2020 and early into 2021. These companies are located all over the world, bringing their skills and capabilities to produce treatments for COVID-19.
Samsung Biologics
A leading CMO in the global pharmaceutical market, Samsung Biologics is investing $1.7 billion into expansion, breaking ground on its fourth plant at its bio campus in Incheon, South Korea in 2020. This addition will provide 256,000 liters more in manufacturing capacity for Samsung Biologics. The company isn’t stopping there: in 2020, they opened a new CDO R&D facility in San Francisco, CA and have further geographic expansion plans into Boston and Europe.
In addition, Samsung Biologics also partnered with notable biopharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Moderna and GSK.
Samsung Biologics is respected industry-wide for its incredibly fast tech transfer capabilities, cutting edge cGMP facilities, and industry leading aseptic fill/finish services, all designed to put client satisfaction at the heart of every project.
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies
Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies invested more than $900 million in its plant in Denmark in order to double its manufacturing capacities in 2020. The company also spent $55 million in Texas to open a therapies innovation center, $83 million on its plant in the UK to triple microbial production capacity, and expanded its North Carolina site to increase manufacturing. The Texas facility is the largest scale-out cell culture manufacturing facility in the U.S.
Furthermore, the CMO announced a contract with Texas A&M University System Center for Innovation in Advanced Development & Manufacturing. Together, they will start work on two new COVID-19 vaccine candidates. CEO Dr. Gerry Farrell stated, “After several months of intense preparation and hard work, we are ready to produce two vaccine candidates locally here in College Station.” He continued, “We are pleased to bring our technical expertise and world-class facilities to support the mission of Operation Warp Speed in bringing a safe and effective vaccine to the world.”
Catalent
Catalent acquired a company in 2020: MaSTherCell Global, a CDMO. Catalent spent $315 million to acquire two facilities in Belgium and Texas that specialize in cell and gene therapies. Furthermore, the company invested another $130 million in expanding its Maryland facility with five additional Phase III manufacturing suites to its gene-therapy campus.
The company has also made several partnerships with pharmaceutical companies in the last year. It partnered with AstraZeneca to manufacture drug substances that the company is in the process of developing and approving. The Maryland facility will be responsible for handling that part of the contract. Catalent President Manja Boerman, Ph.D, said, “Catalent has significant experience in viral vector manufacturing. We are pleased to have the capabilities at our flagship Catalent Gene Therapy site to expand our support for the AstraZeneca program, while continuing to serve our current gene therapy customers. Our gene therapy team is proud to join our Catalent Biologics colleagues at the Anagni site in the advancement of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate.”
In addition, Catalent partnered with Moderna as well. The CMO will manufacture Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. “Catalent’s proven expertise in manufacturing scale-up and commercial production are well suited to support Moderna’s efforts to prepare for wide-scale supply of this vaccine candidate so that it is available if appropriate to address the pandemic,” said CEO John Chiminski.
Thermo Fisher Scientific
This CMO built 15 development and commercial production lines throughout the United States and Europe. Thermo Fisher Scientific added and expanded facilities in North Carolina, the United Kingdom, and Italy. They also announced new plans to build in Singapore and China over the next few years.
Thermo Fisher Scientific is in the process of manufacturing and preparing a crucial tool for distributing vaccines: the freezers they will be stored in. COVID-19 vaccines must be stored at -94 degrees Fahrenheit. The Pfizer vaccine needs several small portable freezers to preserve the substance at its optimal state.
“The fact is, we’ve been looking at this for months. As soon as we knew mRNA vaccines were going to be in play, we started projecting and planning from a supply chain perspective,” said general manager Dr. Alex Esmon.
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