- New construction of one of Europe's largest biotech production facilities for veterinary vaccines in Lyon-Jonage, France
- 17.5 million € contract for design, manufacture and installation of tanks and skids
- Continuation of long-standing cooperation with customer Boehringer Ingelheim
Bilfinger has supplied essential production equipment for a large-scale animal vaccine facility of its long-standing customer Boehringer Ingelheim in Lyon-Jonage, France. The order with a volume of €17.5 million includes the design, prefabrication, construction, installation and commissioning of process equipment for the upstream and downstream processing of the vaccine production.
“With this contract for Boehringer Ingelheim, Bilfinger continues on its growth path in the biopharma industry,” says Christina Johansson, Interim CEO and CFO of Bilfinger. “By offering state-of-the-art design, fabrication and commissioning of essential process equipment from one single source, we provide bespoke solutions as well as an efficient project execution to our long-standing customer.”
Since the end of 2018, experts from the French subsidiary Bilfinger LTM have dedicated more than 100,000 working hours to the complex design and prefabrication works of key processing parts for the new vaccine production center. The equipment tailored to the very specific customer requirements includes 34 virus culture and downstream processing tanks as well as ready-to-use modules, so-called “skids”.
With the majority of all on-site installation activities already completed, the Bilfinger team is now finalizing the mechanical completion and commissioning of the equipment that is essential for major process steps of the vaccine manufacturing procedure: the upstream processing, in which virus cells are cultivated, and the downstream processing, in which the antigen is harvested and purified. With its long-standing experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Bilfinger complies with the strict regulations for hygiene and safety that ensure the highest product quality.
In recent years, Bilfinger has successfully completed numerous projects for well-known pharmaceutical and biotech companies from all over the world. With its Life Science business line, the industrial services provider offers an end-to-end service package for the pharmaceutical industry that combines process engineering with digital expertise.
Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and works in human pharmaceuticals as well as in animal health and biopharmaceuticals. The group’s new facility in Lyon-Jonage is scheduled to be put into operation at the end of 2022 and will produce 400 million doses of veterinary vaccines each year to fight highly contagious diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease and bluetongue disease.