Wuhan, China and Amersham, UK; 25 February 2016: JHL Biotech (TWEM: 6540) and GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business (NYSE: GE) are proud to announce mechanical completion of JHL Biotech’s JHL-1 biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in the Biolake area of Wuhan, China.
The campus was built to be compliant with the highest international standards, and after site validation is completed in June 2016, the facility will be the largest monoclonal antibody manufacturing facility in mainland China to be constructed around single-use bioreactor technologies.
In a first for the pharmaceutical world, the JHL-1 facility was constructed in just over one year, significantly faster than the three-year development timeline typical for the industry. This speed of construction was made possible by commissioning GE Healthcare Life Sciences’ innovative modular off-the-shelf factory, KUBio™.
Designed to increase speed to market and reduce capital construction costs, GE’s KUBio modular biopharmaceutical factory enables rapid deployment of manufacturing capability. Built in Germany to Chinese, European and American regulatory standards, shipped to and assembled in China at the Wuhan site, JHL-1 will be equipped with GE Healthcare’s flexible single-use FlexFactory biomanufacturing platform.
JHL Biotech’s Wuhan facility will be used for cell line development, process development, and cGMP manufacturing of JHL’s late-stage clinical and commercial products. The facility will also be used for contract manufacturing orders for select customers.
Jan Makela, General Manager BioProcess at GE Healthcare Life Sciences, commented, “We’d like to congratulate Racho Jordanov on this important step in further realizing JHL’s outstanding vision for biopharmaceutical manufacturing in Asia. JHL’s investments in KUBio and FlexFactories will help meet its need for speed to market across multiple sites, increasing patient access to these important medicines.”
Racho Jordanov, Co-founder, President and CEO of JHL Biotech, added, “JHL Biotech will make world- class biopharmaceuticals affordable to more people through innovation and consistently high quality. JHL Biotech now has the largest volume of single-use cell culture capacity in Asia with the installation of cGMP manufacturing in our Wuhan facility. Because our biomanufacturing capabilities are shared across our facilities in Asia, we provide our partners a unique offering.”
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world. GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter - great people and technologies taking on tough challenges. From medical imaging, software & IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions, GE Healthcare helps medical professionals deliver great healthcare to their patients. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
About JHL Biotech
JHL Biotech is a biotech startup founded by a group of industry veterans with deep experience in pharmaceutical development and operations. JHL is supported by the commitment of premier financial firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Biomark Capital, Milestone Capital, Fidelity, and the China Development Industrial Bank. JHL Biotech’s mission is to provide the world with low-cost medicines of exceptional quality.
JHL Biotech has built world-class facilities in accordance with United States, European Union, and ICH cGMP regulations and local standards. The JHL Center of Excellence in Taiwan can support biosimilar pre-clinical and early-clinical phase R&D work; JHL’s facility in Wuhan, China will be able to support commercial-scale manufacturing of biologic therapies. This infrastructure gives JHL the unique ability to manufacture its own product and execute contract orders for select clients. For more information about JHL Biotech, please visit the JHL Biotech website at www.jhlbiotech.com.
Contact Information:
JHL Biotech, Inc.
Max Chan, Chief Financial Officer
Phone: +886-(0)3-658-3899
mchan@jhlbiotech.com
Instinctif Partners (on behalf of GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business)
Tim Watson / Lynne Trowbridge
Phone: +44 7866 7861
GE-BioProcess@instinctif.com