Clover Biopharmaceuticals Selects GE's FlexFactory Platform for New Facility in China

Clover Biopharmaceuticals, a company focused on developing biologic therapies, has chosen GE Healthcare’s FlexFactory, a biomanufacturing platform based on single-use technologies, for its new facility located in Changxing, Zhejiang in China, the companies announced in a Jan. 22, 2018 press release. The new facility will mainly be used to produce biological fusion protein products, including innovative drugs and biosimilars. This facility will help Clover Biopharmaceuticals to bring local access to biologic therapies faster, while also opening global markets in meeting global regulatory requirements and quality standards. The biomanufacturing facility includes two 2000-L bioreactors from GE, and it will be operational in the latter half of 2018.

Clover Biopharmaceuticals’ new production facility will be located in one of the national economic development zones in China, Changxing Economic and Technological Development Zone, where a new biopharmaceutical industrial cluster is being developed. China plans to build up to 20 science parks for biomedicine by 2020 to accelerate local research and development activities, according to the press release.

“Adopting high-quality technologies and driving innovation in our manufacturing operations is important for Clover Biopharmaceuticals. GE’s FlexFactory represents the latest in biomanufacturing technologies, and it will help us establish flexible production capacity quickly, while fulfilling good manufacturing practices (GMP) requirements,” said Dr. Peng Liang, co-founder, chairman, and president of Clover Biopharmaceuticals, in the press release.

“The first therapeutic product produced using this biomanufacturing platform is SCB-808, a prefilled syringe formulation Enbrelâ (etanercept) biosimilar candidate for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. We believe that SCB-808 addresses a major unmet need for patients in China and hope that we can provide patients with safer, more efficacious, and convenient modern biologic therapies.”

Source: GE Healthcare