GE Healthcare introduces KUBio factory

Sep 4 2012

GE Healthcare, the healthcare business of GE (NYSE: GE), today introduced KUBio^TM, an innovative off-the-shelf, modular factory designed to save manufacturers of biopharmaceuticals both time and money. KUBio's pre-made modules, which are assembled at a customer's chosen site to make a fully functional ready-to-run bioprocessing facility, are significantly faster to install than constructing a traditional factory. The modules are equipped with GE Healthcare's world-class technologies for the start-to-finish manufacture of biopharmaceuticals.    

Worldwide demand for biopharmaceuticals - such as antibodies for the treatment of cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as the new generation of innovative vaccines - is increasing dramatically, driven by the global ageing population, rising obesity levels and the global effort to reduce the incidence of vaccine preventable diseases. KUBio will help manufacturers to respond to local healthcare needs and bring these potentially life-saving treatments to market more quickly.

KUBio is a fully functional off-the-shelf bioprocessing facility specifically designed to meet cGMP requirements while optimizing manufacturing flexibility and productivity. The 1200m² facility is pre-fabricated and delivered with a complete ready-to-use production line, based on GE Healthcare's Ready-to-Process^TM single-use technologies. With a total planning, delivery and construction time of 14-18 months, compared to the traditional 24 -36 months, both time-to-market and level of capital investment are significantly reduced. The first modular facilities to be introduced will be configured for the manufacture of monoclonal antibodies. GE Healthcare also plans to introduce modules for the manufacture of other biopharmaceuticals.

"KUBio is a totally new approach to the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, bringing our customers a greatly simplified way to build their production capacity," said Olivier Loeillot, General Manager of Enterprise Solutions, GE Healthcare Life Sciences. "With KUBio our customers will be able to cut months off the typical construction time, and greatly streamline the whole construction process. We're already seeing interest from a wide range of customers, from governments wanting to develop in-country manufacturing capability right through to pharmaceutical companies wanting to expand production capacity in new locations. KUBio is an industry game-changer that will help them do just that."

The introduction of KUBio expands GE Healthcare's broad offering of world-class tools, technologies and services for the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry, allowing customers to benefit from a wide range of solutions that can be tailored to meet specific needs, from pilot to commercial scale. GE Healthcare's start-to-finish technologies and services include Fast Trak training, PAA cell culture media, ReadyToProcess single use technologies, specialist purification media and Xcellerex biomanufacturing systems. KUBio aligns with GE's healthymagination initiative which focuses on reducing cost, increasing access and improving quality in healthcare.