With the realization of the first successful customer fills, Vetter, a global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), has reached another milestone at its new clinical manufacturing facility in Rankweil, Austria. Further batches are already planned, and more customer projects are in the business pipeline. In addition, the site is being expanded to optimize processes and increase production capabilities.

Vetter purchased the Rankweil facility in mid-2020 to help meet growing customer demand for complex fill and finish solutions in early drug development phases and to act as the European counterpart to the company’s clinical manufacturing site near Chicago in the U.S. Within one year of its purchase, the site was adapted and integrated to meet Vetter’s standards. In December of 2021, successful completion of cGMP inspection by the responsible national regulatory authority, the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) was achieved thus allowing the facility to support clinical development projects of global pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

“We have been highly focused on achieving the strategic integration of the site,” said Dr. Martin Schwab, site head Austria at Vetter. “With hard work and focus, we have managed to get the site fully operational quickly and are already planning for expansion and further development.”

In order to offer customers additional production capacities, a second autoclave and another washing machine for material preparation will be implemented in the next few months, as well as a modification of the current lyophilizer to become consistent with its Ravensburg facilities, allowing for an optimized aligning of systems and processes. This will support for instance the transition from clinical to commercial production within Vetter.

Andrea Wesp, vice president new business development, at Vetter, said, “Our intent is to support global customer projects as best as we can by offering a flexible and holistic service portfolio for clinical manufacturing. The positive feedback we have received from customers so far who have already visited our Rankweil site is not only proof that we are meeting their needs but that we have achieved an important step in our business strategy.”