To meet accelerating demand for robust clinical supply chain services throughout Europe, Thermo Fisher Scientific has expanded its pharma services footprint with two new state-of-the-art facilities in Rheinfelden and Weil am Rhein, Germany. The new sites will bring much-needed clinical supply chain continuity and specialised cold chain and cryogenic expertise across Europe and globally.

These facilities feature innovative and highly automated technologies to optimise efficiency and quality across the pharma services supply chain. The Rheinfelden site opens in late December 2020 and the Weil am Rhein site will open in January 2021.

"With today's complex and changing landscape, assurance of clinical trial supplies has never been more critical," said Mike Shafer, Senior Vice President and President, Pharma Services, Thermo Fisher Scientific. "These facilities combined with our established regulatory expertise will give customers the continuity and in-region capabilities to support clinical trials across multiple therapy areas. Ultimately, we are enabling our customers to make the world healthier by bringing new medicines to patients with exceptional speed, efficiency and quality."

In Rheinfelden, the new 86,000-square-foot/8,000-square-metre facility significantly increases the company's footprint for secondary packaging, storage, logistics and distribution of clinical supplies to investigator sites across Europe. Featuring highly automated technology in a fully scalable, mixed-use space, the site will serve as a strategic logistics hub for shipping by road or air and its central location will help expedite clinical trial therapies to patients.

In Weil am Rhein, the new 9,600-square-foot/890-square-meter cryocenter provides specialised ultra-low-temperature, cryogenic storage and cold chain expertise for clinical supply chain needs for cell and gene-based therapies, including COVID-19 vaccine candidates. With deep expertise in end-to-end cold chain management, the cryocenter will support ultra-low temperature storage, packaging, labelling, and distribution required by vaccine and cell and gene therapy innovators. The site will feature -80°C freezers, liquid nitrogen (LN2) cryogenic storage tanks and walk-in 2-8°C and -20°C cold storage technology.

The new Rheinfelden and Weil am Rhein facilities are strategically located in the Baden region of Germany and in close proximity to the company's existing clinical services sites in Basel, Switzerland, and Horsham, UK, as well as to its dedicated cell and gene therapy facilities in Bishop's Stortford and Stevenage, UK.