Boehringer Ingelheim expands biopharmaceutical capabilities

Boehringer Ingelheim has expanded its biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing capabilities for an investment of around 17 million euros (14.15 million pounds).

This new initiative has augmented the company's cutting-edge cell line development, with its proprietary BI-HEX high expression system and microbial strain, at cell culture and microbial sites in Biberach and Vienna.

It also involves improvements made to the company's process development services for the contract manufacturing business, as well as its good manufacturing practice cell banking, process science, cell line development and quality laboratories capabilities.

Dr Dorothee Ambrosius, senior vice-president for biopharmaceutical global process science at Boehringer Ingelheim, said: "The expansion has been tailor-suited to fully meet our customer demands in cell culture and microbial process science, especially for our rapidly expanding pre-clinical project portfolio with biotech companies."

This project will enhance Boehringer Ingelheim's ability to offer competitive services, such as the recently introduced Lean-to-Clinic programme for monoclonal antibody projects.

Launched in January 2012, Lean-to-Clinic combines BI-HEX capabilities and a streamlined development approach to deliver drug compounds rapidly and cost-effectively.