Tees Valley Mayor Hails Growing Biotechnology Sector

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has visited a cutting-edge research and technology business that is leading the way in its field.

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, which has a site in Billingham as well as two facilities in the United States, is a world leading cGMP Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) supporting its partners in the biopharmaceutical industry with the development and production of their therapeutic candidates.

Its mission is to help its customers bring their biologic and vaccine candidates to the clinic and, ultimately, to commercialisation.

The company has taken recently 15,000sq ft. of space at the Wilton Centre after it revealed £7m plans to extend development work at a site close to its existing base in Billingham.

After a tour of the state-of-the-art facilities Mr. Houchen said: “Fujifilm Diosynth Technologies is a truly inspirational business in the Tees Valley.

“It is delivering cutting-edge technology in a sector that is in its infancy.

“We’re seeing a vote of confidence from Fujifilm in the fact that it is investing millions and millions of pounds in its Tees Valley development and is looking at plans to further invest, which I am extremely pleased to support.

“It’s a really exciting business and one that should be supported both locally and nationally by our Government and it’s one that I’ll be supporting in the future.”

Paul Found, chief operating officer at Fujifilm Diosynth Technologies said: “I really enjoyed the opportunity to show the Mayor around. We are really passionate about the business we operate here at Fujifilm. We bring life-changing medicines to market quicker and help our customers to do that.

“Being situated in the Tees Valley brings great benefits to the business. We’re building on a great heritage in the North East where we’ve got great skills in both science and manufacturing.

“We’re building on the talent in the region and the support of local government to make sure all the structures and infrastructure we need to have a growing and flourishing business are in place.”

Full video can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ePAyoOrg1A