Avid Bioservices, Inc. is to more than double its manufacturing capacity with a new production facility adjacent to its current campus in Tustin, California.
The state-of-the-art facility will incorporate a flexible modular clean room design and the latest in single-use technologies, the company said on Wednesday.
Avid, the contract manufacturing subsidiary of Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc., provides clinical and commercial manufacturing services under cGMP for the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries.
In a separate statement on Wednesday, Peregrine said that the expansion of Avid's manufacturing capacity would support the potential commercial launch of its lead immuno-oncology candidate, bavituximab, and the growth of its contract manufacturing business.
Bavituximab is currently in Phase III development for the treatment of second-line non-small lung cancer, alongside several investigator-sponsored trials evaluating other treatment combinations and additional oncology indications.
The planned expansion within an existing 40,000 square foot warehouse will more than double the company's current manufacturing capacity. It will accommodate multiple single-use bioreactors of up to 2,000 liters, downstream processing suites and dedicated support utilities that will allow for production of a variety of biological products.
"As one of the early adopters of single-use technology, this expansion allows us to build upon our expertise in what is now a common mainstream practice for biologics production," commented Avid president Steven King.
The new cGMP facility is expected to be ready for cGMP production in mid-2015.
