Fujifilm pivots to healthcare with a $928 million investment in Danish facility

Japanese multinational organization Fujifilm which made its name through advancements in photography, imaging and printing-related technology, has made a significant investment in a former Biogen biologics facility in Denmark as the firm pivots towards healthcare and focuses on its global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) expansion plans.

This investment, supplementary to an earlier investment around $890 million made on the facility last year is expected to double capacity at the Danish plant which would be primarily be used to produce treatment drugs for COVID-19.

Fujifilm will make a large $928 million investment at a former Biogen site in Denmark it acquired in August for $890 million. The company’s major capital expenditure for its Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies CDMO site will increase the plant’s bulk drug manufacturing and distribution output by late 2023.

With large-scale manufacturing capacity in place, Fujifilm will be capable to offer end-to-end production services for its customers by 2023.

“With the addition of world-class assets enabling us to scale production volumes to fit both small and large batches, the capital infusion allows us to deliver on our promise to support our partners from pre-clinical through to commercialization.”

Fujifilm believes that its extensive investment will increase income for its bio-CDMO sales to $928 million per year by March 2022 and then multiply that to $1.86 billion per year by 2026.

Fujifilm’s expenditure into its Denmark site comes weeks after the Japanese drugmaker admitted to set aside a production line at the site for the Bill Gates-funded COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator.

In late April, Fujifilm agreed to assign a room at the Hillerød, Denmark, facility and work with a preferred pharmaceutical partner in promoting the swift production and dedicated supply for patients with COVID-19 in lower-income countries.

The deal set aside an undefined production capacity for 2021 with prospects for the following years.

Fujifilm acquired the Biogen biologics production facility in Denmark with about 800 employees in August. The 90,000-liter capacity facility is the fourth biologics manufacturing site for Tokyo-based Fujifilm Diosynth, a partnership between Fujifilm and Mitsubishi.

Fujifilm Diosynth’s Denmark site is just one portion of a global expansion effort that the firm expedited after Meeson’s promotion to the CEO role in April.

Earlier in March, the CDMO opened a new $21 million, 32,300-square-foot pluripotent stem cell manufacturing facility. The company has also recently begun a $35 million expansion of its biomanufacturing facility at its College Station, Texas, site to accommodate for late-phase and commercial manufacturing of gene therapies and other advanced products.