Ajinomoto Althea Celebrates 20 Years in San Diego & Opening of New Facility

Ajinomoto Althea, Inc., a leading contract development and manufacturing organization, celebrated its 20^th year in operation, making it one of the true anchors of the San Diego life science community. Concurrently, Althea held the grand opening of its new state-of-the-art Antibody Drug Conjugate (ADC) and Highly Potent Fill and Finish facility located at 6175 Lusk Blvd, near its existing campus.

The manufacturing facility includes areas dedicated to bioconjugation, formulation, purification, quality control, and sterile fill and finish including lyophilization.  This 57,000 square foot facility enables Althea to offer clients a simplified manufacturing supply chain service from a single US-based location. This signifies a critical step in addressing the need for safely manufacturing this rapidly growing segment of the biopharmaceutical market.  Manufacturing ADCs and HPAPIs requires specialized facilities and infrastructure to ensure safe handling of these potent therapeutics. The facility can accommodate early clinical phase through commercially approved programs.

The event celebrated Althea’s 20 years of biotechnology development and manufacturing services in San Diego and featured several speakers, including the President of Ajinomoto Co. Inc., the President and CEO of Althea, and the San Diego Mayor, Kevin Faulconer, who commemorated the celebration with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

In his comments, Mayor Faulconer stated “For two decades, Althea has made their mark on our City and our region. They help fuel our economy. Their employees volunteer and give back to our communities. And they have attracted global partners like Ajinomoto to invest even more in the San Diego region. This is a story of success – one that is only going to get better and better with this new facility.”

Althea President and CEO J. David Enloe Jr. commented “We couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate 20 years in San Diego than with the opening of our new facility.  We are extremely proud of the growth the company has experienced over the past two decades and are excited for this next phase of growth with the opening of this new facility, all of which serves our ultimate goal of providing patients across the world with the most cutting edge therapeutics available.  I am also very pleased that we were able to incorporate multiple strategies to ensure we are operating this facility in the most environmentally sustainable means possible.”

Althea is a fully integrated, contract development and manufacturing organization located in San Diego, CA providing clinical and commercial product development and manufacturing services. Althea offers cGMP drug product filling in both vials and syringes, and drug substance production of microbial-derived recombinant proteins and plasmid DNA. In conjunction with these manufacturing operations, Althea offers comprehensive development services including: upstream and downstream process development, analytical development, complex formulation, product release and ICH-compliant stability testing. Althea’s formulation technology platform includes Crystalomics, a proprietary technology that offers a formulation solution for large molecule products that must be delivered at high concentrations or as sustained release formulations. Althea also has an innovative and proven recombinant protein expression technology called Corynex technology. For more information visit us at www.altheaCMO.com