GE Healthcare launches KUBio modular pharmaceutical factory

GE Healthcare has announced the launch of KUBio, an innovative off-the-shelf modular approach to the expensive process of creating biopharmaceutical factories.

The pre-made KUBio modules have been designed to meet cGMP requirements and allow pharmaceutical companies to easily create a 1,200 sq m facility, delivered with a complete ready-to-use production line.

Modules are assembled at a customer's chosen site to make a fully functional ready-to-run bioprocessing facility in between 14 and 18 months, making it a faster and cheaper option than a traditional construction process, which takes 24 to 36 months.

The first facilities will be configured for the manufacture of monoclonal antibodies, with further modules for the production of other biopharmaceuticals to be introduced later.

Olivier Loeillot, general manager of enterprise solutions at GE Healthcare Life Sciences, said: "KUBio is a totally new approach to the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, bringing our customers a greatly simplified way to build their production capacity."

This follows the introduction of the company's new AKTA pure modular chromatography system for protein purification last month.