JHL Biotech Installs GE Healthcare's FlexFactory Biomanufacturing Platform

GE Healthcare has completed installation of its FlexFactory biomanufacturing platform at JHL Biotech’s Research Center and manufacturing plant in Hsinchu, Taiwan, the companies announced in a press release. The new manufacturing platform will follow cGMPs and be fully operational by the end of 2013. It is similar to the production process at JHL Biotech’s KUBio modular biopharmaceutical factory currently under construction by GE Healthcare in Wuhan, China.

GE Healthcare’s FlexFactory is a centrally automated, flexible biomanufacturing platform. It allows manufacturers to quickly and easily establish biopharmaceutical manufacturing capacity within an existing building or as part of a new facility, which allows manufacturers to rapidly respond to local healthcare needs. FlexFactory is comprised of single-use technologies and associated process hardware as well as all necessary automation and control components for start-to-finish manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals.

JHL Biotech’s FlexFactory in Taiwan will be used for cell line development, process development, and cGMP manufacturing in preclinical and early-stage clinical work.  In addition, it will serve as a proving ground for JHL Biotech for technology transfer. GE Healthcare’s Shanghai Fast Trak team will validate equipment at the site and will train local JHL Biotech staff. JHL Biotech’s facility includes two 500L single-use bioreactors, with the option to expand to four if greater throughput is required. FlexFactory enables JHL Biotech to develop manufacturing processes prior to launching full-scale manufacturing operations in its Taiwan facility and prior to its KUBio factory in Wuhan becoming fully operational in early 2015.