Dowpharma to close Smithfield contract manufacturing facility

Dowpharma has announced plans to close its biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing facility in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

The company says it will continue to develop its biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing business by building on promising new developments in protein and peptide expression technologies.

'Biotechnology is a dynamic industry and demands agility,' said Nick Hyde, business director, Dowpharma. 'The decision to close the Smithfield facility, formerly owned by Collaborative BioAlliance (CBA), is driven by changes in the biotech industry specifically around mammalian cell culture technology.

'One of the reasons for our decision to purchase CBA in 2000 was a forecast of additional mammalian cell culture capacity needed to supply the market. Market conditions for this technology have not evolved to the point the industry anticipated just a few years ago.

'We've decided to sharpen our focus on areas where we can deliver truly differentiated value to our customers. Our emphasis will be on enabling technologies for the rapid process development and scale-up of client production processes for therapeutic proteins and peptides.'

Dow has previously announced the consolidation of its process development capability at its biotechnology centre in San Diego and recently launched its Pseudomonas fluorescens expression technology for the production of recombinant proteins. This novel technology can increase cellular expression while maintaining critical solubility and activity characteristics of recombinant proteins. Also this year, Dowpharma announced a new peptides offering, including expression and purification strategies for cost effective manufacturing.