Novartis Contract Manufacturing to launch high-throughput cell culture system in Austria

To enhance its facilities aimed at producing high-quality biologics, Novartis Contract Manufacturing plans to go-live with a cell culture system at the company’s drug substance site in Kundl, Austria. The protein manufacturing line is on track to be GMP-ready by the third quarter of 2025, according to an update posted on LinkedIn.

With increased demand for biologics, a high-throughput mammalian cell culture production area is currently being implemented by Novartis under the name RPP1-CC.

“This significant investment underscores our commitment to pioneering next-generation manufacturing technologies,” Novartis Contract Manufacturing said in a statement. “It also showcases our efforts to expand mammalian capabilities, ensuring we meet the ever-evolving demands of the biopharmaceutical industry.”

According to Novartis’ website, the currently available services at its Kundl site include drug substance microbial manufacturing, master and working cell banks, as well as plasmid DNA and RNA. Austria is home to the company’s Center of Excellence for Biologics Manufacturing.

In a video accompanying the announcement, Christian Eichmüller, project director and senior tech transfer lead, said the Kundl facility “has a long track record in the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals for customers” and is designed to produce proteins manufactured through mammalian cell culture technology, including monoclonal antibodies and bispecific antibodies.

“We put a special focus on the sustainability of this new facility, so by different measures we could reduce the energy consumption — and consequently the carbon footprint of this facility — by approximately 50% compared to a conventional facility,” Eichmüller said. “The annual capacity of this facility will be approximately 150 batches, and this corresponds to 1.7 million liters of cell culture harvest.”

Eichmüller added that the facility is multi-purpose and highly automated, with the ability to be used for Novartis products and manufacturing for customers. “Novartis is happy to support other companies to produce their medicines to supply the market,” he said.

In April, Novartis announced it will invest $23 billion over five years on 10 U.S. manufacturing and R&D sites — including seven new facilities, six of which will be manufacturing plants.

With its planned $23 billion investment in manufacturing and R&D in the U.S., Novartis is “on track” in the “coming years” of achieving its goal of fully producing 100% of its key medicines end-to-end in the U.S., according to CEO Vas Narasimhan.

In addition to the U.S., the company said it is focused on growing its other “priority geographies” — China, Germany and Japan — with three emerging platforms (gene & cell therapy, radioligand therapy and xRNA) “being prioritized for continued investment into new R&D capabilities and manufacturing scale.”