Wuxi Biologics to Install Large-Scale Single-Use Bioreactor

On March 20, 2018, WuXi Biologics, a contract development and manufacturing organization, announced that it has selected 4000-L Custom Single Run (CSR) disposable bioreactors from ABEC, a provider of integrated process solutions and biopharmaceutical manufacturing services, to install in Wuxi Biologics’ new commercial manufacturing facility in Wuxi city, Jiangsu, China.

Wuxi Biologics states that the 4000-L CSR is the largest single-use bioreactor size available in the industry and is potentially the largest design in conventional disposable bioreactors. This is expected to result in higher productivity and significantly lower cost of goods for cell culture-based biopharmaceuticals, according to the company.

The system also delivers performance comparable to stainless-steel bioreactors of similar scale and can be fully customized for different products. This results in higher cell-culture productivity and faster process transfer and scale-up, the company reports.

Wuxi Biologics’ scale-out strategy, which involves using multiple disposable bioreactors for commercial manufacturing, means that the 4000-L CSRs will enable manufacturing up to the scale of 24,000 L, comparable to traditional stainless-steel bioreactors.

"We are proud to be a global technology leader in bioprocessing and the first company in Asia to advance this exciting new technology. ABEC's large volume single-use bioreactor greatly enhances our commercial manufacturing potential by allowing not only scale-out of capacity but also scale-up. In addition to the flexibility and time to market benefits of single-use manufacturing, we can now offer our clients true economies of scale and address biologics supply needs from kilograms to tons," said Dr. Chris Chen, CEO of WuXi Biologics, in a company press release.

"WuXi Biologics' successful testing, evaluation, and investment further validates ABEC's CSR technology as one of the most flexible single-use solutions available on the market," said Scott Pickering, ABEC president and CEO, in the press release. "We are pleased to be part of their next-generation manufacturing strategy and look forward to continuing this long-term partnership."

Source: WuXi Biologics