Plans are afoot at Shandong Sinobioway Biomedicine Co. in China to construct a huge biologics plant as the country moves towards cell-based drugs.

The company has stated in a public filing that a biologics manufacturing plant is planned to be constructed with a capital investment of $471.6 million and a production capacity of 500,000 liters. The construction project is expected to be completed within a time span of around 18 months with construction expected to start in mid-April. The filing further mentioned that a sum of 500 million Yuan ($79.9 million) in 2019 and a further investment of 1 billion Yuan would be made in 2020. A recent public offering undertaken by the company provided the basis for the funding initiatives.

To be built on a 15,404 square meter site in Shandong at the Sinobioway biomedical industry park site, the facility will comprise quality control sites, laboratories and a bioreactor capacity. Sinobioway of China is the parent company of Shandong Sinibioway Biomedicine Co.

Project estimates by Sinobioway Biomedicine allude to the fact that the CMO market of China is presently worth $35 billion and is expected to clock values of $50 billion by 2020.

It is estimated that the recently constructed facility of WuXi Biologics, claiming to operate China’s largest single-use biomanufacturing plant in the country has a capacity of 30,000 liters with an investment of $150,000.