Taiyo Pharma Tech Adds Gene Therapy Capacity in Japan

Taiyo Pharma Tech will establish a new Cytiva FlexFactory platform at its site in Osaka, Japan, which will add contract manufacturing capacity for the Japanese domestic gene therapy market. The new equipment will be used to make gene therapy medicines based on adeno-associated viruses.

According to the press release, Taiyo Pharma Tech’s installation will be the 100th Cytiva FlexFactory. This platform uses single-use technology and a modular design. Single-use technology removes complex cleaning steps, reduces the risk of contamination, enables high-mix manufacturing, and speeds time to market, according to the company. For Taiyo Pharma Tech, the anticipated time to install and open its factory will take approximately 14 months.

“With FlexFactory, not only are we able to tailor production based on specifications and reduce capital expenditure, but we are also able to address demand with speed and potentially reduce time-to-market by half,” said Tomotsuna Nakagaki, senior director of New Business Development in Taiyo Pharma Tech, in the press release. “We can move confidently forward in our plans to make new medicines available quickly for the Japanese market.”

"The coronavirus pandemic was a stark reminder that we must ensure access everywhere to new medicines and vaccines,” said Stephane Perrey, general manager of Cytiva in Japan, in the press release. “To meet current and future demands, countries need to strengthen domestic manufacturing alongside the global supply chain. With few [contract manufacturing organizations] in Japan today, there is huge potential for building local manufacturing in Japan for Japan. We are pleased that the plug and play nature of the FlexFactory platform enables rapid scale up or scale out to support the rapidly growing biotech market in Japan now and into the future.”

Sources: Cytiva and Taiyo Pharma Tech