Production Facilities of Drug Substances for Bio-Pharmaceuticals

UNIGEN Inc., a manufacturer of drug substances for bio-pharmaceuticals, established jointly by UMN Pharma Inc. and IHI Corporation and currently a wholly owned subsidiary of API Co., Ltd., and API Co., Ltd. have launched a construction project for production facilities of drug substances for bio-pharmaceuticals (UNIGEN Gifu Plant), based on a comprehensive business alliance on the manufacturing process of influenza vaccine concluded by UMN Pharma Inc., UNIGEN Inc. and API Co., Ltd. in April 2010.

Chiyoda was in charge of the engineering, procurement, construction and validation (EPCV) work of UNIGEN Gifu Plant.

UNIGEN Gifu Plant is a five-story reinforced concrete building with multiple fermenters of 21,000 liters on a total floor area of 14,000 square meters. It is one of the world’s largest plants using the baculovirus expression vector system, a recombination protein manufacturing technology involving baculovirus and insect cells.

The UNIGEN Gifu Plant co-operates with API's Ikeda Bio-pharmaceutical Plant and enables the one-stop manufacturing of bio-pharmaceuticals, from drug-substance production to final pharmaceutical formulation production , including cell culture-based influenza vaccines.