SHANGHAI—May saw WuXi Biologics, a leading global open-access biologics technology platform company offering end-to-end solutions for biologics discovery, development and manufacturing, announce that it had entered into a strategic partnership letter of intent (LOI) with a global vaccine leader, pursuant to which WuXi Vaccines will build a dedicated facility and supply a commercial product for the global market.
WuXi Vaccines is a joint venture company to be established between WuXi Biologics and Shanghai-based Hile Bio-Technology. The business model of WuXi Vaccines is to build world-class integrated platforms and a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) model to enable global companies to develop and manufacture vaccines.
Under the LOI, WuXi Vaccines will build an integrated vaccine manufacturing facility including drug substance manufacturing, drug product manufacturing and quality control labs.
“This is a historic moment for WuXi Biologics and WuXi Vaccines as well as for the global vaccine industry. Due to process complexity, extensive analytic testing and rigorous regulatory standards, vaccines are difficult to manufacture, and process and quality control are extremely critical for the quality of the product. This partnership with a global vaccine leader to exclusively manufacture a vaccine for the global market, first of its kind in the industry, is a further testimony to the technical strengths and premier quality demonstrated by WuXi Biologics,” said Dr. Chris Chen, CEO of Wuxi Biologics. “Vaccine CDMO is one of the next growth areas for WuXi Biologics. Once this project is initiated, our vaccine business will contribute substantially to the growth of WuXi Biologics.”
