Global life sciences company Cytiva is opening a new 7,400 square meter manufacturing facility in Grens, Switzerland on May 31, 2022. The site will manufacture single use kits for the Sepax and Sefia cell processing systems, as well as consumables for Xuri cell expansion systems. It will also serve as a Center of Excellence for Cytiva’s cell and gene therapy business and will be a base for European customer training programs.

The site will be home to 250 associates. An opening ceremony will be held on May 31 followed by a LinkedIn Live Broadcast on June 2.

“Cell and gene therapies have the potential to change the global healthcare landscape,” said Catarina Flyborg, vice president, cell and gene therapy, Cytiva. “Our new facility in Grens will enable us to meet global demand for our products, while working with our customers to meet their immediate training and development needs. This facility brings us another step closer to our vision where access to life-changing therapies transforms human health.”

The existing site in Eysins will continue operations through 2023, while full production transfers to the new site in Grens.

Inside the facility

The facility will quadruple Cytiva’s capacity for manufacturing Sefia, Sepax and Xuri consumable products with two new ISO class 7 cleanrooms, ensuring that increased future demand can be met. The design of the facility adopts GMP principles from raw materials entering the building, through the manufacturing process, to the shipment of finished products.

Cytiva continues to integrate sustainability into its operations. The new site has been built to Swiss Minergie standards, a sustainable building standard recognized globally for its effectiveness in achieving lower energy and resource consumption. Building to this standard provides high-grade, air-tight building envelopes and the continuous renewal of air in the building using an energy-efficient ventilation system. The building is powered by 100% renewable electricity and has roof mounted solar panels. It also has five distinct HVAC systems that optimize environmental conditions in each functional area. Cytiva is investigating the use of ‘dynamic’ cleanroom controls which would further reduce power usage by up to 60%.

A R&D facility is located on the first floor, which consists of several laboratories designed for multidisciplinary engineering and cell biology processing capabilities. The customer training center, located on the second floor, is a fully equipped 100 square meter BSL2 laboratory that will enable process and application training with Cytiva instruments, consumables and software. Cytiva associates will also be able to use this facility to develop knowledge and skills on current and future products and processes.