DSM to expand biopharmaceutical output in Montreal, Canada

02 July 2002 11:41  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--DSM Biologics is to build a new biopharmaceutical plant in Montreal, Canada comprising four fermentors with a combined capacity of more than 60 000 litre.

The Dutch company said French/Canadian engineering firm SNC Lavalier Pharma will carry out the basic engineering work, which is expected to be completed in the autumn and will cost Euro7m ($6.9m). No estimate for the onstream date was provided.

The project's total investment cost will be "tens of millions" of euros, according to Peter Elverding, DSM's chairman. Elverding revealed last November that DSM was considering boosting its North American fermentation capacity.

Regional investment bank Societe Generale de Financement du Quebec (SGF), which holds a minority stake in DSM Biologics Montreal, will help finance the project.

The new facility include downstream processing, and will be used for the production of monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins based on mammalian cell culture. DSM said this new generation of drugs represents a strongly growing segment of the pharmaceutical industry.

DSM aims to lead the global biopharmaceuticals market within four years. It is currently number three, behind Boehringer Ingelheim and Lonza, according to a company spokesman.

Last year, DSM brought a fermentation unit onstream in Montreal, which it said is sold out for the next two years. "Therefore we are in high speed to carry out basic engineering [for the new project]," remarked the spokesman.

By: Anna Jagger
+1 713 525 2653

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