Biomay to Construct a New Biotech Manufacturing Facility in Vienna
Tenfold Increase of Manufacturing Capacities in 2022
Press release (Vienna, December 15, 2020) Biomay, a Vienna-based biotech company, is constructing a new production facility which will increase its manufacturing capacities tenfold and its headcount almost twofold. The new headquarters in Aspern Seestadt, Vienna, will go into operation in Q1/2022. The greenfield investment will allow the company to serve its clients through to commercial supply, as well as entering new markets in the messenger RNA field. Biomay is also significantly expanding its contract manufacturing of patient-specific products for personalized therapies.
The ground-breaking ceremony for the new Biomay HQ took place in September 2020, with construction work starting immediately afterwards. The new site will nearly double Biomay’s headcount, from 50 at present to 90 going forward.
Model image of the new Biomay HQ; © Biomay AG
“It is great to have managed this demanding and complex planning and engineering task under the challenging conditions caused by the pandemic”, says Dr. Hans Huber, Chief Executive Officer of Biomay. Huber goes on to express his gratitude for the project team’s performance: “Both our in-house and external engineering teams have done an excellent job.” The next key milestones to come are the topping out ceremony in Q2/2021, followed by commissioning of the facility in Q4/2021. The company will begin its manufacturing operations in Q1/2022.
An Attractive Site at aspern Seestadt
Hans Huber is convinced of the quality of the new site: “Both our staff and our clients will feel at home in aspern Seestadt. We are looking forward to the urban and architectural flair of the locality, and we already feel very welcome there.”
Alexander Kopecek, Executive Board Member and CFO of the aspern development agency Wien 3420: “Biomay’s decision to locate at Seestadt is another gratifying addition to our attractive and expanding development which will bring many benefits for the Vienna economic region. The new HQ will generate new highly skilled jobs in the booming biotech sector, which is a perfect match for our priority concept of research, development and urban manufacturing.”
Strong Customer Demand and Innovative Products
For Biomay, this greenfield investment means an enormous step forward into a new entrepreneurial league, a move that will benefit Biomay’s clients most of all. As CEO Hans Huber points out: “We are already manufacturing for companies developing highly innovative treatments in the fields of gene and cell therapies, CRISPR/gene editing and mRNA vaccination. Our expanding batch capacities and extended scope of services will offer our clients a long-term perspective, from product development right through to commercial market supply.”
Facility Facts
The fully integrated manufacturing plant comprises a total floor area of about 4000 square meters (43 000 sq ft) and will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for the manufacturing of innovative biopharmaceutical products. The primary business focus will be on plasmid DNA, mRNA and recombinant proteins, produced with microbial expression systems. The facility will contain several parallel clean rooms of different classes, as well as associated laboratories for quality control, assay development and manufacturing science and technology. The planned bioreactors will comprise gross volumes of 50L, 150L and 750 L, expanding Biomay’s overall manufacturing capacities by a factor of 10, based on bioreactor volume. A dedicated area of the new building will allow the parallel production of innovative, personalized batches. The Vienna Business Agency is supporting the realization of the project.
About Biomay
For more than a decade, Biomay has been successful as a biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) with an international reach. In particular, Biomay is recognized as a manufacturer of plasmid DNA (pDNA). Biomay’s clients include start-ups, midsize biotech companies and multinational enterprises, predominantly from Europe and the US. Biomay has been manufacturing recombinant proteins since the 1990s and already holds the manufacturing license for another innovative and sought-after product class, messenger RNA (mRNA). Beside the manufacturing of active ingredients and drug products according to GMP standards, the company offers process and assay development as well as manufacturing of microbial cell banks. Biomay is a non-listed private limited company.
See recent news and press releases:
- Areterna and Biomay Announce Strategic Partnership to Jointly Serve mRNA CDMO Customers in Europe and North America
- Biomay Announces its Successful Support of Approval of First CRISPR/Cas9-based Therapy
- Biomay Announces Expansion of its GMP-Facilities to Offer mRNA Manufacturing and Aseptic Filling Services
- Biomay Cooperates with BioNTech to Supply DNA Template for COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine