Boehringer Ingelheim has expanded its biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing capabilities with an investment of approximately $22 million Euros at its cell culture and microbial sites in Biberach, Germany and in Vienna, Austria. These expansions enhance cell line development with the BI-HEX high expression system and microbial strain, as well as process development services for the contract manufacturing business. The company’s cGMP cell banking, process science, cell line development and quality laboratories, have all been upgraded.

Boehringer has established the ‘Lean to Clinic’ program for monoclonal antibody projects, offering the delivery of drug substance after 13 months for clinical studies. The new resources for the microbial business strengthen Boehringer’s high yield and high purity pDNA platform and support the technology collaborations with Pfenex, Inc. on the Pseudomonas technology and with VTU Technology on the Pichia expression technology.

“The expansion has been tailor-suited to fully meet our customer demands in cell culture and microbial process science, especially for our rapidly expanding pre-clinical project portfolio with biotech companies,” said Dr. Dorothee Ambrosius, senior vice president Biopharmaceuticals Global Process Science at Boehringer Ingelheim. “This is another milestone within our contract manufacturing strategy securing technology leadership and towards increased flexibility and customer orientation.”