Wuxi manufacturing continues to roll, two new facilities on the way

17-Nov-2014 - Last updated on 30-Nov-2023 at 14:40 GMT

Related tags Jiangsu Wuxi

With biologics declared as its main driver over the next few years, CDMO Wuxi is seeing rapid manufacturing growth and planning two new facilities in the next two years.

The company is looking to triple manufacturing capacity with its building projects, which include a $100m large scale research and commercial small-molecule manufacturing facility in Changzhou City, and its largest commercial manufacturing facility in WuXi City in 2015.

“Our rapidly expanding pipeline of early and late stage products is leading us to build the new facilities in Changzhou City…Upon completion of the entire product over several years the site will triple current manufacturing capacity,” Ge Li, chairman and CEO of Wuxi said in a conference call.

With a 500-member team developing biologics, the company now boasts of “one of the largest biologics development operations” among all CDMOs, Li said.

“A key source of growth in biologics over the next several will be biomanufacturing,” Li added. “We are making plans to build biological commercial manufacturing facilities to meet the strong demand that we are seeing.”

He also expects a substantial uptick in small molecule manufacturing jobs. The company currently manufactures a portfolio of 11 Phase III products, and also recently passed its first US FDA inspection at its API manufacturing plant.

“The largest incremental revenue came from small-molecule manufacturing, which grew from 25.9% to 26.7% on total company revenues,” Li said. “Biologics had nearly as large incremental revenue contribution and it grew from 4.8% to 8.7% of the total company revenue.”

All three of Wuxi’s business segments had their highest quarterly revenue ever – with manufacturing seeing 23% growth, China lab services seeing an 18% increase and US lab services seeing a 11% rise.

In order to capitalize on this growth, Wuxi is ready to double its capital expenditures -- from $56 million last year to $95 million to $100 million this year. The expenditures “will grow even higher next year, as we take full advantage of the many business opportunities in front of us,” Li said.

He also highlighted the company’s acquisition of XenoBiotic Laboratories, a company with capabilities in DMPK/ADME and bioanalytical services, with operations in both the US and China.

But he downplayed the company’s joint venture with PRA Health Sciences and MedImmune, saying it won’t likely be profitable until next year.