NEEDHAM, Mass., March 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- For biopharma companies faced with increasing demand for new biologics, cell and gene therapies, and drug products, Thermo Fisher Scientific is investing more than $475 million in new capabilities and capacity in 2020. This investment, in addition to those made in 2019, brings the total investment over two years to approximately $800 million across the company's pharma services business.

"We've invested strategically to ensure that lack of capabilities, capacity or supply is never a reason medicines are delayed in reaching patients," said Mike Shafer, president, Thermo Fisher's pharma services business. "Our offering can provide solutions at all points along the pathway to commercialization, whether it's an emerging biotech working on vaccine for a novel virus or a high-volume pharmaceutical manufacturer delivering necessary drugs at scale."

Thermo Fisher is strategically investing to align capabilities and capacity around three areas of greatest demand: biologics, cell and gene therapy, and drug product development and commercial capabilities.

Increasing Biologics Development and Manufacturing
Thermo Fisher's St. Louis site completed its $50 million expansion, doubling production capacity for biological drug substance development and commercial manufacturing. It is now among the world's largest producers of biologics using single-use technology, substantially increasing its ability to meet the clinical and commercial manufacturing needs of customers as they rapidly advance medicines to patients in need. In July, a new Bioprocessing Collaboration Center will open also within its St. Louis site, where multiple Thermo Fisher businesses will jointly develop innovative new bioprocessing products, workflows and services for customers.

Expanding Cell and Gene Therapy Capabilities
Following its acquisition of Brammer Bio, and in direct response to growing demand for new viral vector manufacturing capacity, Thermo Fisher rapidly expanded its viral vector development and manufacturing capabilities, opening a new site in Lexington, Mass. and expanding sites in Cambridge, Mass. and Alachua, Fla. Elsewhere, the company will open a new cell therapy development and manufacturing collaboration center in Princeton, N.J, combining pharma services and biosciences expertise from across the broader Thermo Fisher network. The new cell therapy facility will come online at the same location later this year.

Expanding Industry-Leading Drug Product Development and Commercial Capabilities
Thermo Fisher is committed to helping drug product manufacturers scale smoothly from low-volume development to low- and high-volume commercial manufacturing. For developers whose molecules face solubility challenges, Thermo Fisher now offers commercial spray drying capabilities to enable a seamless pathway from early development to commercial approval. Likewise, to address the increased need for high-quality sterile/fill finish services, Thermo Fisher is making unprecedented investments to scale up its sterile drug development and commercial capabilities globally to cover a full range of dosage forms for sterile injectables.

To ensure consistent quality required by global regulatory authorities, Thermo Fisher now offers efficient, flexible continuous manufacturing capabilities, which can produce four times the volume of oral solid dosage forms than standard lines at consistent high quality. New commercial packaging capabilities increase therapy delivery speed to patients, even with smaller production runs or for oral solid dose and sterile drug product requiring flexibility. Lastly, Thermo Fisher's new QC Lab of the Future, leveraging Thermo Fisher's analytical instrument, automation and informatics capabilities, is a model for other pharmaceutical QC sites globally. The new lab integrates and automates workflows by combining capabilities across Thermo Fisher to deliver products faster with high quality and improved consistency.

"We will continue making investments so that customers can start with us in development and stay with us throughout the product lifecycle, all the while remaining confident that we'll continue to capitalize on the broad resources and expertise within Thermo Fisher to provide access to new specialized technology and expertise as the industry evolves and innovates," added Shafer. 

Webinar
To learn more about these investments, join us for a special webinar on March 23 at 10 a.m. ET with Mike Shafer and Leon Wyszkowski, president, commercial operations, pharma services. Register for the webinar by clicking here.

COVID-19 Update
Thermo Fisher is closely monitoring the rapidly evolving situation and any potential impact on its businesses to ensure it can continue to manufacture and deliver critical products and services to customers. This includes carefully managing its inventory, production and supply chains. All pharma services operations globally have business continuity plans in place, and all sites are operational and are experiencing no significant disruptions. Updates on pharma services business continuity plans and related COVID-19 information can  be found at Patheon.com and FisherClinicalServices.com.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue exceeding $25 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or increasing productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them. Our global team of more than 75,000 colleagues delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services and Patheon. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.

Scott Bauman
Greenough
978-471-9572
Sbauman@greenough.biz

SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific