Pall & Cytiva invest $1.5bn to expand manufacturing capacity for biotech customers

Technology and services providers to the life sciences industry Cytiva and Pall Corporation will invest $1.5 billion over the next two years to expand their manufacturing capacity for biotechnology solutions.

The investment will see the companies expand manufacturing capacity for life sciences products across 13 sites and will also include the building of brand-new sites in the UK and US.

For instance, a new facility in Cardiff, Wales will be designed to manufacture single-use bioprocessing, with the first products expected to begin production before the end of 2021.

A new US facility aims to replicate and complement Cytiva’s leading resin manufacturing capabilities at its site in Uppsala, Sweden. The location of the new site will be announced at a later date.

Emmanuel Ligner, group executive of Pall and Cytiva parent company Danaher, said: “Our customers tell us they need access to manufacturing agility, a robust global supply chain and more regional options. This investment further fuels our expansion program so we can rapidly meet the current and future needs of our customers and ultimately, their patients.”

In particular, the investment will help the companies expand and increase capacity for the manufacture of key products used to make biologic medicines. This will include investment in things such as chromatography resins, cell culture media and single-use technologies.

Cytiva and Pall plan to hire 2,000 people over the next two years to support growth, with a hiring drive already having started for 250 roles.

The investment follows five acquisitions made by Cytiva and Pall into areas of pharmaceutical manufacturing including vaccine technology, digital modelling, liquid cell cultures and others.

“We envision a world in which access to life-changing therapies transforms human health. Our investments and acquisitions are about building capacity and the therapeutic development workflow to advance and accelerate the work of our customers,” Ligner said.

“For example, we can now help our customers take a new therapeutic from idea to injection, starting with discovery, through process development, to large-scale manufacturing. I know I speak on behalf of our growing and passionate team when I say we are deeply proud of our efforts to bring benefits to patients around the world.”