Kemwell & Boehringer collaborate on biologics

By Nick Taylor

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Process development Biotechnology Boehringer ingelheim

CMO Kemwell is receiving technical assistance from Boehringer Ingelheim for the construction of its new biotech facility, which is designed to marry European technology with Indian low cost manufacturing.

The facility in Bangalore, India will use process technology from Boehringer, which should simplify transfer and scale-up if clients want to use the Germany-based company’s European commercial production capacity.

Kemwell’s clients will have preferred access to Boehringer’s facilities and this, coupled to the efforts to simplify transfer, is intended to help clients reduce time to market.

Use of Boehringer’s BI HEX high expression system, which speeds the development of high-titer processes for producing biologics from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, is also expected to cut time to market for the contract manufacturing organisation’s (CMO) clients.

The facility

The 15,000 sq m Kemwell facility, which the company plans to invest $50m (€36m) in, is designed for process development, production, purification and formulation of biologics for early-phase preclinical and clinical studies.

A current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) compliant facility and sterile fill and finish site are planned. In addition the site will house process development laboratories to support production of protein therapeutics from microbial fermentation or mammalian-cell culture.

Microbial fermentation of up to 1000L will be installed as well as cell culture bioreactors up to 2000L. Flexible downstream processing capacity is also in the plans.

For clients needing process development Kemwell is installing separate microbial and cell culture laboratories that will scale up to 80L and provide research and preclinical material using similar equipment to the cGMP plant.

In addition the site will have aseptic filling and lyophilisation capacity. This will be capable of handling fill volumes ranging from 2ml to 20ml and have a capacity of 30,000 vials per batch.

Biologics in India

The new facility marks Kemwell’s first move into biologics, a sector that it believes is currently untapped in India.

For clients to transfer work to the country they will have to be reassured that it is capable of handling biologics, a process that Singapore put significant effort into, and Boehringer’s presence should help with this.

Related news

Show more

Related products

Efficient Freezing & Storage of Biopharmaceuticals

Efficient Freezing & Storage of Biopharmaceuticals

Content provided by Single Use Support | 06-Nov-2023 | White Paper

Various options exist for freezing biopharmaceutical bulk material, but selecting the most effective and efficient approach for each cold chain can be...

Understanding the hidden value of quality

Understanding the hidden value of quality

Content provided by Thermo Fisher Scientific – Production Chemicals and Services | 16-Jan-2023 | White Paper

The raw material supply is too vital to leave to chance, and quality-related supply chain activities are cornerstones to your success.

Follow us

Products

View more

Webinars