ADC Capacity Race Heats Up: CDMO Giant Fujifilm Commits $3.2 Billion to Expand North Carolina Facility

Global biopharmaceutical CDMO giant Fujifilm continues its aggressive expansion.

On April 11, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, a CDMO under Fujifilm, announced plans to invest an additional $1.2 billion on top of its existing $2 billion commitment to further expand its large-scale biologics manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina. With this additional investment, Fujifilm’s total investment in the facility has exceeded $3.2 billion.

In 2018, Fujifilm selected North Carolina for the first time as the site of its largest biopharmaceutical cell culture CDMO campus, allocating $2 billion for its construction. The facility broke ground in October 2021.

According to Fujifilm, this capital increase will expand the production facility by 425,500 square feet (approximately 3.95 hectares) by 2028. The number of 20,000-liter mammalian cell culture bioreactors will be increased by eight, bringing the total number of bioreactors at the site to 16.

The new facility can be flexibly expanded with additional bioreactors to accommodate new projects and meet partners’ emerging needs; upon completion, it will become one of the largest cell-culture biopharmaceutical CDMO facilities in North America.

Meanwhile, by 2031, this investment is expected to create an additional 680 local jobs, bringing the total number of new high-skilled positions in Holly Springs to 1,400.

This expansion is a key component of FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ “Life Partner Implementation Strategy,” which aims to establish large-scale manufacturing capabilities across the United States and Europe to support the end-to-end needs of biopharmaceutical customers and ensure supply chain resilience. Leveraging FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ modular manufacturing model, KojoX™, this expansion enables the company to build identical large-scale production facilities in both the U.S. and Europe, ensuring seamless integration of drug manufacturing for customers regardless of their location.

It will also help Fujifilm fully tap into the potential of the antibody drug market, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and bispecific antibodies, and become a dominant player in the global antibody drug market.

According to Fujifilm’s projections, the antibody market will grow at an annual rate of 8% by 2030. Consequently, the company has increased its investment in North Carolina. The first batch of bioreactors is expected to commence operations in 2025, with new production lines scheduled to be launched and become operational by 2028.

Fujifilm also disclosed that the funding for this capacity expansion was supported by a Job Development Investment Grant approved by the North Carolina Economic Development Commission.

Teiichi Goto, President and Chief Executive Officer and Representative Director of FUJIFILM Corporation, stated: “This investment is a significant step in further accelerating the growth of our biopharmaceutical CDMO business. Committed to promoting healthy societal development, FUJIFILM’s employees and our Holly Springs facility will play a pivotal role in supporting partners’ production efforts and meeting patient needs for critical therapies.”

North Carolina Governor Cooper stated, “The new jobs created by FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ expansion in Wake County are a strong testament to the thriving economic relationship between North Carolina and Japan. We thank them for their continued investment. Japanese companies will continue to provide high-paying jobs and economic opportunities for the people of North Carolina.”

In addition to this investment, Fujifilm is also expanding its manufacturing investments globally. This includes a $1.6 billion investment in June 2022 to expand cell culture capacity for antibody products at its CDMO subsidiary, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, in Texas and Denmark. On November 12, 2022, the company invested $188 million to establish a cell culture media production facility in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina, USA.

In December 2023, the company invested $200 million to enhance the new headquarters of its subsidiary FUJIFILM Cellular Dynamics and to expand cell therapy manufacturing capacity at the FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies facility in California.

Global CDMOs Are Accelerating Industry Restructuring. On one hand, impacted by the U.S. Biosecure Act, the overseas operations of WuXi AppTec’s affiliated CXO companies have been hindered. On the other hand, while Fujifilm continues to inject capital into its manufacturing capabilities, Swiss production giant Lonza is also adjusting its assets to expand mammalian cell culture production facilities for its biologics business.

In January this year, Lonza closed its biotechnology plant in the New Knowledge City of Guangzhou Development District, China, resulting in the layoff of approximately 300 employees. However, in March, Lonza announced it would pay $1.2 billion in cash to acquire Roche’s production facility in Vacaville, California, one of the largest biologics manufacturing sites globally. The transaction aims to increase Lonza’s commercial mammalian cell culture product output and expand its manufacturing footprint in the United States.

This also indicates that this top global CDMO is reshaping its global capacity layout.

Similar to Fujifilm, Lonza’s capital increase and expansion are primarily aimed at boosting biologics production capacity, with a focus on CDMO projects in clinical and commercial stages.