Seattle-headquartered AGC Biologics announced that on July 1 it will begin cell therapy process development and clinical manufacturing services at its new Yokohama Technical Center in Japan.
In addition to its U.S. facilities in Seattle and Boulder and Longmont, Colorado, AGC Biologics has production and manufacturing centers in Copenhagen, Denmark, Heidelberg, Germany, Milan, Italy, and Chiba, Japan. The contract development and manufacturing organization said the Yokohama site is part of its expansion of the company’s Global Cell and Gene Technologies Division.
“The improved geographical footprint allows AGC Biologics to better serve customers requiring autologous and allogeneic products across all markets, with cell therapy manufacturing now available in three continents,” according to the announcement.
AGC Biologics said the Yokohama site will provide process transfer and manufacturing services for pre-clinical and clinical trials, with core technologies including induced pluripotent stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells, as well as CAR-T cell therapies.
“This new site precedes the opening of a new AGC Biologics Yokohama manufacturing facility on schedule to be operational in 2027 with pre-clinical through commercial services for mammalian-based protein biologics, cell therapies, and messenger RNA,” the company said.
Thanks to a grant from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, AGC Biologics announced plans last year for the new $350 million manufacturing site in Yokohama. CEO Alberto Santagostino, who took the helm in November 2024, told Pharma Manufacturing earlier this year that when the Yokohama facility is completed it will be one of Japan’s largest sites for mammalian-based manufacturing capacity.
Santagostino said there is an unmet domestic demand that needs to be addressed in Japan. AGC Biologics “wants to become the CDMO of reference” in the Asian country, he said. The Yokohama site will serve Japan’s biopharma companies and those foreign firms that “want to take advantage of the Japanese quality of manufacturing and the cost advantage of a pretty weak yen,” Santagostino added. When the CDMO’s site comes online, he claimed it will likely be the largest site for disposable bioreactor manufacturing.
In April, AGC Biologics announced that it selected large-scale bioreactor systems for its new manufacturing facility in Yokohama, which will feature two 5,000-liter Thermo Scientific DynaDrive single-use bioreactors.