AstraZeneca Buys Amgen’s Biologics Bulk Mfg. Facility

AstraZeneca has purchased a high-tech biologics bulk manufacturing facility from Amgen, expanding its biologics manufacturing capability in the U.S. The LakeCentre facility, located in Boulder, CO will increase production capacity to support its portfolio of biologics.
 
The company will begin staffing the facility to support infrastructure improvements, and it is expected to be operational and licensed for commercial production by late 2017.
 
Down the road, this site could create as many as 400 highly skilled jobs, and will eventually double the biologics manufacturing capacity in the U.S. to accommodate its maturing pipeline. Currently biologics make up 50% of the company’s pipeline with more than 120 ongoing programs, including more than 30 in clinical development.
 
Pam Cheng, executive vice president, Operations and Information Technology at AstraZeneca, said, “The addition of the Boulder facility will support the progression of biotech drug candidates across our main therapeutic areas as we continue to bring innovative new treatments to patients. This site will play an important role in our future commercial production and give AstraZeneca and MedImmune, our global biologics research and development arm, the flexibility and capacity to meet the needs of our rapidly growing biologics portfolio.”