TOKYO: Japan’s Fujifilm Corp. said Tuesday that it will invest some 90 billion yen in European and US production bases to increase its manufacturing capacity for biopharmaceuticals.

With the investments, the subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings Corp. aims to meet growing demand for novel coronavirus vaccines and gene therapy drugs.

Specifically, Fujifilm Corp. plans to construct a new building at a British base of a subsidiary to increase its production capacity for active pharmaceutical ingredients of gene therapy drugs by at least 10 times.

In the United States, Fujifilm is set to boost its production capacity for ingredients of coronavirus vaccine and other products.

The additional facilities in the two countries are expected to begin operating in late 2023.

Fujifilm’s cumulative investments to develop biopharmaceuticals and expand contract manufacturing of such products have thus reached some 600 billion yen.

The company already announced plans to expand facilities in Denmark and build a new plant in the US state of North Carolina.

JIJI Press