Announcement of Showa Denko Materials' Investment in Its Regenerative Medicine Business-Related Facilities and Equipment in Yokohama and Germany

November 02, 2020

Showa Denko Materials Co., Ltd.

Showa Denko Materials Co., Ltd. (President and CEO: Hisashi Maruyama; hereinafter “Showa Denko Materials”) announces the decision to invest a total of approximately 6.77 billion yen in its Yokohama Site in Japan and its subsidiary Minaris Regenerative Medicine GmbH in Germany to construct manufacturing facilities for commercial manufacturing of regenerative medicine products.

 

Regenerative medicine refers to treatment methods for transplanting cells derived from in-vitro cultures into the human body in order to restore tissues, organs or immune functions damaged by injury or disease. These methods include cancer immunotherapy and cell therapies using somatic stem cells and iPS cells. In recent years, clinical applications have markedly increased, especially in cancer immunotherapy and somatic stem cell therapy.

 

 

The Showa Denko Materials Group operates a contract manufacturing business for regenerative medicine products primarily at five sites around the world – three in the United States (one in Mountain View, California and two in Allendale, New Jersey), one in Japan (Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture), and one in Europe (Ottobrunn, Germany). The Group’s strength lies in its global system that supplies products in countries and regions where many new drug candidates are developed by its customers, namely, pharmaceutical manufacturers.

 

With commercial manufacturing of regenerative medicine products expected to grow in the future, Showa Denko Materials has decided to invest in production facilities and equipment at its Yokohama Site and its subsidiary Minaris Regenerative Medicine GmbH in Germany to expand its manufacturing capacity.

 

At the Yokohama Site, we will create a floor area of roughly 4,000 square meters, almost the same size as the No. 1 facility currently in operation, in the adjacent building and introduce the necessary equipment to commercially manufacture these products. We estimate an investment of 2.5 billion yen and plan to begin operations around October 2022.

 

As for Minaris Regenerative Medicine GmbH, we will invest roughly 4.27 billion yen to build a new 6,650-square meter facility near the Ottobrunn facility, with operation scheduled to start at the beginning of 2023.

 

Showa Denko Materials aims to enhance its commercial manufacturing services for regenerative medicine products through this investment at the two locations, thereby contributing to the development of regenerative medicine and helping to improve the quality of life of many patients.

 

• To Japanese