Michel Vounatsos, Biogen CEO (via YouTube)

Bio­gen adds key man­u­fac­tur­ing plant to its po­ten­tial­ly quixot­ic ad­u­canum­ab launch plan

Bio­gen’s do-or-die re­view date for Alzheimer’s hope­ful ad­u­canum­ab is fast ap­proach­ing, and the drug­mak­er has made it clear it will prep for a large com­mer­cial roll­out even with the drug’s chances mixed at best. Now, Bio­gen will add an­oth­er man­u­fac­tur­ing plant to the sup­ply chain, just in time for a po­ten­tial ap­proval.

This week, Swiss reg­u­la­tors OK’d Bio­gen’s Solothurn, Switzer­land plant to help pro­duce large-scale batch­es of ad­u­canum­ab should it earn FDA ap­proval on June 7, the com­pa­ny said. The fa­cil­i­ty com­bines new tech­nol­o­gy for fed-batch cell cul­ture and pro­tein pu­rifi­ca­tion and will com­ple­ment Bio­gen’s ex­ist­ing plant in Re­search Tri­an­gle Park, NC. The site could al­so be used to man­u­fac­ture an­oth­er Alzheimer’s hope­ful, lecanemab, among oth­er drugs.

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