With an investment of around SFr1.5bn ($1.5bn), the state-of-the-art facility aims to meet the increasing demand for high-quality protein-based drugs or biologics that target severe neurodegenerative, haematological or autoimmune diseases. It is expected to triple Biogen’s biologics manufacturing capacity.

Biogen’s biologics manufacturing facility is built on the former Borregaard pulp mill site. The site was chosen as it fulfilled all the requirements for developing a sustainable biotechnology facility, including sufficient land.

The facility is also situated near Biogen’s international headquarters in Zug, Switzerland, and generates manufacturing synergies for the company.Details of Biogen’s manufacturing facility in Switzerland

Biogen’s 36,510m² (393,000ft²) biologics manufacturing facility features two production buildings, BMC1 and BMC2. It also features 26,942m² (290,000ft²) of warehouse, utilities and support space along with 4,738m² (51,000ft²) of administrative space. The production blocks are 28m tall and 60m wide.

The production building also includes smaller buildings such as a sprinkler control centre and an emergency power system.

The modular production facility houses two cell manufacturing lines, each with four 18,500l bioreactors. The manufacturing lines have a modular design allowing them to adapt to expansions to meet future demands.

Construction of Biogen’s Switzerland facility

A total of 29,000m³ of concrete and 13,000 of steel were used in the plant’s construction. The wall formwork is made of a system called Mammut 350. It includes a 3.5m high-format panel and has an 8.75m² formwork surface.

The production facility required 101km-long pipes, 843km of cables, 2,600m-long dirt and rainwater pipes, four dirt and rainwater pumping stations, 600m-long extinguishing water pipes, 1,900m process wastewater pipes, and 3,000m-long drinking water and hydrant pipes.

An additional 250m of gas pipes, 45,000m-long electric cables and 85 electric shafts were used.

Processing technology details

The ultra-modern facility produces biologics using a four-step production process. The first step involves inoculation and seed train operations to culture the mammalian cells using cultivation vessels and bioreactors of different sizes.

The purification phase involves the removal of impurities using a series of purification steps to ensure the products’ purity and suitability for human use. The product is then transferred into specific containers and stabilised for final processing, which involves filling, labelling and packaging.