Kyowa Kirin completes $118M drug substance manufacturing facility at Japan plant

Specialty pharma company Kyowa Kirin has completed construction of a new 16.8 billion Japanese yen ($118 million) drug substance manufacturing facility at its Takasaki, Japan plant in Gunma Prefecture.

The HB7 building will support early-phase development of biopharmaceuticals and includes both GMP-compliant and pilot-scale manufacturing areas. Both areas are equipped with single-use systems intended to reduce contamination risk and streamline production.

The facility includes space for future expansion and is designed to incorporate technologies such as continuous manufacturing, automation, and digitization. Construction was carried out by Kirin Engineering Company and Taisei Corp.

A training facility has also been established within the building to address a shortage of experienced biopharma engineers in Japan. The space allows staff to perform operations that simulate actual manufacturing processes. This expands on Kyowa Kirin’s existing Human Resource Development Office at the Takasaki site.

The HB7 building spans four floors above ground and one below, with a total floor area of approximately 9,250 square meters.

In June 2024, Kyowa Kirin announced plans build a biopharmaceutical plant in Sanford, North Carolina, with the construction currently underway. The drugmaker will invest up to $530 million to build the 171,700-square-foot two-bioreactor facility, which Kyowa Kirin says will be scalable to its plant in Takasaki in order to ease tech transfer between the two sites.

“By establishing a global manufacturing structure that utilizes Takasaki Plant, including HB7 building, and the plant in Sanford, we aim to further accelerate development by manufacturing [drug substance] in-house, from early to late-stage development and the initial stages of market launch,” Toshiyuki Kurata, managing executive officer and chief supply chain officer at Kyowa Kirin, said in a statement.