Roche And Genzyme Invest In Biologics

Roche will invest about $875 million to expand its biologics manufacturing network over five years and create about 500 jobs. The company says it needs additional capacity to support sales of its approved products and ones to emerge from development. In the U.S., Roche will spend about $285 million at its Vacaville and Oceanside, Calif., sites. Another $380 million will go toward expanding and refurbishing its Penzberg, Germany, site, while more than $200 million will be used to build an antibody-drug conjugate facility in Basel, Switzerland (see page 7). Meanwhile, Sanofi’s Genzyme biopharmaceuticals business will spend $80 million to build a downstream processing facility in Framingham, Mass., for its enzyme replacement therapy Fabrazyme.