Cytiva, a global life sciences leader, is opening a new 11 000 m2 manufacturing facility in Cardiff, Wales. The site, part of a two year $1.5 billion (£1.1 billion) global expansion plan, has begun to make mixer bags, flow kits and tubing assemblies which will later be shipped to customers.
These technologies are used in the development and production of biopharmaceuticals such as COVID-19 vaccines.
Mary Blenn, Vice President Global Supply Chain at Cytiva, says: “Since 2020, we have invested and significantly increased global capacity to address our customers’ growing needs. We continue to expand with new manufacturing sites, such as that in Cardiff. This facility also gives us an enhanced presence in the UK, allowing us to provide more regional options to our customers there.”
Bringing more biomanufacturing to the UK also supports the country’s rapidly growing life sciences sector. In 2021, £4.5 billion ($6 billion) was raised in public and private financing by UK biotech companies, a 60% increase compared to 20201. While the UK leads Europe with discovery research and start-up funding2, a lack of domestic manufacturing has meant scaling up often happens offshore. Building regional manufacturing, such as that in Cardiff, can help address the current needs of the industry while establishing capabilities that support long-term growth.
Joe Govier, CEO of Connect 2 Cleanrooms, says: “Drawing on our 20 years’ experience, our team is proud to work with Cytiva to design, build and validate the cleanrooms in Cardiff. The drive for this project was qualification and scale. This work ultimately advances and accelerates biotherapeutics and it’s been a pleasure to work with Cytiva on this high-profile project.”
Thousands of units of product are expected to be shipped globally from Cardiff in 2022. Construction on five more cleanrooms will be completed later this year. When complete, the new site will help increase Cytiva’s global manufacturing capacity for single-use products by 20%.
