Asahi Kasei Medical's U.S. subsidiary Bionova Scientific, a full-service biologics CDMO, has decided to launch a new business line providing services leveraging plasmid DNA, and establish a dedicated facility for this purpose in Texas, the U.S.

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Shown is the Research Forest in The Woodlands, Texas, the planned future site of Bionova’s pDNA facility. (Photo: Business Wire)

The bioprocess business of Asahi Kasei Medical is one of the 10 Growth Gears (GG10), businesses to lead the next phase of growth, under the Asahi Kasei Group’s medium-term management plan focused on the theme “Be a Trailblazer.” With the expansion of the biopharmaceuticals market, Asahi Kasei Medical has obtained further growth opportunities by entering the CRO (contract research organization) business and CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organization) business while leveraging its customer base and brand strength in addition to expanding established businesses such as Planova™ virus removal filters.

As a biologics CDMO that provides process development and manufacturing services to pharmaceutical companies, Bionova is well regarded for its capability of process development for complex next-generation antibody-based drugs whose manufacture tends to be difficult. To broaden its services portfolio, Bionova looked for opportunities to enter new therapeutic modalities such as cell and gene therapies, which are expected to grow rapidly.

Plasmids are DNA molecules that exist in the cells of microorganisms such as E. coli. They are increasingly used as important starting material in fields of biotechnology such as cell and gene therapies, mRNA vaccines, and antibody drugs. The global plasmid manufacturing market is expected to grow at double-digit rates over the next several years due to the rapid growth of new modalities such as cell and gene therapies. Bionova has decided to contribute to accelerating the growth of such new modalities by leveraging its expertise of manufacturing process development, GMP manufacturing know-how, flexible customer support, and industry network in the targeted new modalities.

For process development and GMP manufacturing of plasmids, Bionova will establish a new facility in The Woodlands, Texas, the U.S. Service provision is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2025 for process development and in the first half of 2026 for GMP manufacturing.

Asahi Kasei Medical aims to contribute to the development of the healthcare industry while further driving the growth of the Health Care sector of the Asahi Kasei Group by providing innovative and exceptionally reliable products and services that enable improved safety, increased productivity, and the stable supply of biotherapeutics.

Please refer to the press release dated April 19, 2022

“Asahi Kasei Medical to acquire Bionova Scientific, U.S.-based biopharmaceutical CDMO”

https://www.asahi-kasei.com/news/2022/e220419.html

Please refer to the press release dated February 2, 2023

“Bionova Scientific, U.S. biologics CDMO of the Asahi Kasei Group, expands manufacturing capacity”

https://www.asahi-kasei.com/news/2022/e230202.html

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240603320522/en/