As work progresses on an up-and-coming biologics plant in North Carolina, specialty pharma company Kyowa Kirin has completed another in its home country of Japan.
Kyowa Kirin has finished the build-out of a new 16.8 billion Japanese yen ($118 million) drug substance manufacturing facility at its biopharma production site in the Japanese city of Takasaki.
The new site will be used to crank out investigational biologics for early-stage development using Kyowa’s antibody technology and protein engineering know-how, the company said in a Friday press release. The facility, which incorporates single-use technology to curb cross-contamination risks, also features a pilot facility for process development.
Kyowa figures the new production unit will provide an “early supply” of investigational drugs and help the company accelerate its development efforts. The drugmaker is also designing the building with future expansions in mind.
Down the line, Kyowa says it wants to integrate additional tech and production approaches like continuous manufacturing, automation and digitization at the site to eventually mold the facility into a smart factory.
Beyond producing drugs, the new Kyowa site also houses a training facility for biopharma manufacturing and quality control, which the company set up in a bid to help fill Japan’s gap in experienced biopharma production engineers.
The new facility in Takasaki will work in tandem with Kyowa’s forthcoming U.S. plant to help keep the company’s drug substance manufacturing in-house.
Last June, Kyowa received the all-clear to start building a massive, $530 million biologics plant in Sanford, North Carolina, in the second half of 2024. The new plant, which is expected to be up and running by 2027, will mark the Japanese drugmaker’s first in the U.S.
Similar to the new Takasaki facility, the Sanford plant will produce next-generation antibodies for upcoming clinical trials and future commercial use.
“In June 2024, we also announced to build a biopharmaceutical plant in Sanford, North Carolina, USA, and the construction is currently underway,” Toshiyuki Kurata, Kyowa Kirin’s chief supply chain officer, said in a statement. “By establishing a global manufacturing structure that utilizes Takasaki Plant … and the plant in Sanford, we aim to further accelerate development by manufacturing [drug substance] in-house, from early to late-stage development and the initial stages of market launch.”
While Kyowa Kirin continues to grow its manufacturing footprint, the company hasn’t been immune to widespread market pressures among other areas of its business.
Last summer, the company said it was planning a “significant reduction” to its small molecule drug discovery research activities, in a move meant to align with the drugmaker’s newfound focus on antibody technologies and hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy in a select few fields. At the time, Kyowa noted that cuts across chemistry, manufacturing and controls research and the company’s quality division were also in the cards.
In tandem with the downsizing reveal, Kyowa noted that it was transferring its entire Chinese mainland operations, including five established brands, to domestic drugmaker WinHealth Pharma for 750 million Chinese yuan (then worth around $104 million).
The company also offloaded seven established brands in South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan to the Swiss holding company DKSH Holding.
More recently, Kyowa Kirin revealed earlier this year that it’s laying off 52 U.S. employees in Princeton, New Jersey, where the company carries out development, commercial and corporate functions at its North American headquarters.