Japan’s Chugai Infuses $500 Million for a New API Manufacturing Building

With nearly $500 million (55.5 billion yen) investment, Japan’s Chugai Pharmaceutical adds another manufacturing building to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for small and mid-size molecule drugs. This is the third building Chugai established for this drug type.

FJ3 to Support Clinical Trials to Market Launch

The building, also known as FJ3, will be located in the Fujieda Plant along with FJ1 and FJ2 and is expected to go into full operation in March 2025.

“FJ3 will be a world-class production facility with advanced production technologies and automate manufacturing operations which enable labor-saving and productivity improvements, as well as thoroughly considering environment and safety,” said Osamu Okuda, President, and CEO of Chugai.

FJ3 will be a five-story isolated building and installed API production lines with advanced containment technologies to meet the manufacturing needs as more candidates are about to enter clinical trials. The facility will produce high potency API from early clinical trials to market launches.

The construction of FJ3 will begin in 2022 and finish in February 2024. Currently, FJ2 is still under construction and will be completed in 2022.

The mid-size molecule is Chugai’s third modality, following small molecules and antibodies. With the expectation of mid-size molecule drugs being the driving force for the firm’s medium to long-term growth, Chugai has established two buildings for production in 2019 and 2021.

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Tyler Chen

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