Clean Cells, part of the Clean Biologics group, a provider of biopharmaceutical product quality control services and manufacturer of starting materials, announced an investment of €13M ($15.3M) for a new production facility in Montaigu‑Vendée. By quadrupling its analysis and production capacity for biopharmaceuticals, the group - backed by healthcare investment fund ArchiMed - intends to play a key role in speeding up the development and time-to-market of novel treatments and vaccines for COVID‑19.
Clean Cells’ new laboratories, with a footprint of over 5,300 m2, will offer Europe’s largest quality control and cell bank production to companies active in the development of biopharmaceutical products. The construction of the new facility started in July 2021, and should be completed by September 2022. From summer 2022, the new facility is expected to create 80 new jobs, with opportunities available for both engineers and technicians, as well as roles in scientific, logistical, administrative and sales support.
The new site will give Clean Cells access to important additional biopharmaceutical quality control capacity, significantly decreasing time-to-market for these products in Europe. The expansion project therefore goes hand in hand with France’s strategy of returning industrial activity to French soil. An example of this strategy is the ‘Grand Défi Biomédicaments’, or ‘Great Biopharmaceuticals Challenge’ program launched by the French government at the end of 2020, aiming to create a national biopharmaceutical products industry.
By increasing the number of its production suites from five to nine, Clean Cells will be able to significantly boost its production capacity of cell banks for vaccines, therapeutic antibodies and gene therapies, by running nine different production lines simultaneously. Clean Cells will maintain its capacity for manufacturing virus banks. In addition, the company will quadruple its capacity for biosafety tests, allowing the company to respond to the increased demand from both existing and new clients. Clean Cells will continue to add new technologies to its portfolio in order to further raise its product safety standards and reduce turnaround times.
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