Thermo Fisher Scientific is planning to invest $50 million in its St. Louis, Missouri site which is one of the company's Centers of Excellence (COE) for Biological Commercial Manufacturing. The investment is part of a deliberate strategy to continue expansion of the company's global network of biologic drug substance capabilities for clinical and commercial supply.

The project includes expansion to the existing manufacturing building #2 by 64,000 square feet, which will double its manufacturing capacity and will be operational in 2019.  The expansion will take advantage of the Thermo Fisher bioproduction eco-system for bioreactors, consumables and factory automation.  With this capacity expansion, Thermo Fisher will have the second largest base of single-use bioproduction capacity at a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) in the world. The investment will also allow for further expansion in the future. Approximately 80 new technical jobs are expected to be added.

The St Louis site currently provides process development, clinical cGMP manufacturing and commercial manufacturing using both fed batch and perfusion processes. The St. Louis COE, with more than a decade of manufacturing experience, has in-house analytical capabilities for Quality Assurance and Quality Control.