HALIX celebrates Grand Opening of its state-of-the-art cGMP facility
Official inauguration ceremony of the new facility for the development and manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals
Leiden, the Netherlands, November 21, 2019 – With an official inauguration ceremony, HALIX celebrated the opening of its 6,700 m2 brand-new cGMP facility at the Leiden Bioscience Park. On behalf of HALIX, Alex Huybens, COO of HALIX, Dr. Roland Hecht, CCO of HALIX, Dr. Harry Flore, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of HALIX, and Paul Dirkse, Alderman of the municipality of Leiden, ceremoniously opened the new facility.
The opening marks the achievement of a major milestone within the construction process and is the basis for HALIX growth and expansion strategy. This enables HALIX to support its clients manufacturing of protein based products, the key technology for future drug production, and virus based products with cutting-edge technologies. The new building houses GMP production areas for viral and protein products and client-specific technologies, as well as associated laboratory and administration areas.
Alex Huybens, COO of HALIX, was proud to inaugurate the facility: “The facility is a symbol for the strong innovative, dynamic and modern culture at HALIX. Our team jointly worked with huge efforts on the progress of our client’s projects and the HALIX itself. These efforts and the new facility enable us to serve the growing client and market demands.”
Dr. Harry Flore, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of HALIX B.V., adds: “We build our investment strategy alongside global megatrends. In the field of Pharma APIs based on proteins are of importance and sustainable trends in the future drug production. With these state-of-the art new production facilities HALIX sets a new milestone in its development as a highly specialized biotech company.”
Alex Huybens, COO of HALIX and Paul Dirkse, Alderman of the municipality of Leiden during opening ceremony
Epidemics and pandemics have changed historical life and, as a result of climate change, will transform future life in modern economies. Nowadays, the Chikungunya virus and Zika virus, carried via mosquitoes, are already prevalent in Africa and South America. HALIX produces vaccines to prevent spreading those infectious and other viral diseases. HALIX is also focusing on therapeutic vaccines, specific oncolytic therapeutic vaccines such as to cure dedicated types of cancer.
The opening was celebrated with clients, business partners, HALIX employees and representatives from HALIX shareholders and the HALIX supervisory board.
The new five-level production facility contains a state-of-the-art manufacturing line for viral vaccines and viral vectors, starting soon, with a 250 L bioreactor scale. A separate protein manufacturing area with a capacity up to 1,000 L single-use bioreactors is available. Laboratory spaces within the facility allow process development and transfer, analytical development and quality control of biopharmaceuticals.
All cleanroom areas have a unidirectional process flow and are designed to allow commercial manufacturing of biopharmaceutical products. The cleanrooms, all BSL2 classified, are prepared for an upgrade to BSL3, if required. The office spaces, laboratory and cleanroom areas offer up to 70 employees attractive and modern workplaces.
The state-of-the-art cGMP facility in the Leiden Bio Science Park
About HALIX
HALIX B.V. is a biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for biologics enabling the treatment and prevention of life threatening diseases. The company is focused on mammalian expression systems for the production of viral vectors and recombinant proteins. HALIX leverages scalable single-use, state-of-the-art bioprocessing technologies to provide its customers with services for the development and GMP manufacturing of drug substance and drug product. HALIX has entered into a number of contracts for the production of oncolytic immunotherapies and vaccines, utilizing innovative technologies. The company opened its state-of-the-art 6,700 m2 GMP manufacturing facility in 2019, offering 1,000L SUB capacities, at the Leiden Bio Science Park, the Netherlands. HALIX belongs to the family owned Droege Group AG. More information is available on: www.halix.nl
About Droege Group
Droege Group (founded in 1988) is an independent advisory and investment company under full family ownership. The company acts as a specialist for tailor-made transformation programs aiming to enhance corporate value. Droege Group combines its corporate family-run structure and capital strength into a family-equity business model. The group carries out direct investments with its own equity in corporate spin-offs and medium-sized companies in “special situations”. With the guiding principle “execution – following the rules of art”, the group is a pioneer in execution-oriented corporate development. Droege Group follows a focused investment strategy based on current megatrends (knowledge, connectivity, prevention, demography, specialization, future work, shopping 4.0). Enthusiasm for quality, innovation and speed determines the company’s actions. In recent years Droege Group has successfully positioned itself in domestic and international markets and operates in 30 countries.
More information is available on: www.droege-group.com
Contact
Corporate Communications HALIX B.V.
Tel. + 31 (0)88 1959000
Email: communications@halix.nl