Biotech chooses FlexFactory for new Chinese facility

Biotechnology company, Clover Biopharmaceuticals, has announced its choice of biomanufacturing platform as being GE Healthcare’s FlexFactory for its new facility located in Changxing, China.

The facility will be used to product biological fusion protein products, including innovative drugs and biosimilars. It includes two 2,000 litre bioreactors from GE and the company anticipates it will be operational in the latter half of the year.

“Adopting high-quality technologies and driving innovation in our manufacturing operations is important for Clover Biopharmaceuticals. GE’s FlexFactory represents the latest in biomanufacturing technologies, and it will help us establish flexible production capacity quickly, while fulfilling good manufacturing practices (GMP) requirements,” said Dr Peng Liang, co-founder, chairman and president of Clover Biopharmaceuticals. “The first therapeutic product produced using this biomanufacturing platform is SCB-808, a prefilled syringe formulation Enbrel (etanercept) biosimilar candidate for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. We believe that SCB-808 addresses a major unmet need for patients in China and hope that we can provide patients with safer, more efficacious and convenient modern biologic therapies.”

“China has one of the fastest growing biopharmaceutical industries in the world, and it is important when new production facilities are being built that the chosen biomanufacturing technologies support this positive development, bringing high-quality biologics fast to market. We are excited to collaborate with Clover Biopharmaceuticals and to contribute to their promising and ambitious product pipeline by delivering a flexible, start-to-finish biomanufacturing platform based on single-use technologies,” added Sven Henrichwark, general manager, Global Commercial BioProcess, GE Healthcare Life Sciences.