Fujifilm Acquires Cell Therapy Mfg. Facility from Atara Biotherapeutics

FUJIFILM Corp. has entered an agreement to acquire a cell therapy manufacturing facility from Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. for $100 million. The facility located in Thousand Oaks, CA is readily expandable with the flexibility to produce both clinical and commercial cell therapies including allogeneic T-cell and CAR T immunotherapies.

FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, a subsidiary of FUJIFILM Corp., a CDMO with experience in the development and manufacture of biologics, vaccines and advanced therapies, will operate the new site.

The 90,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility is currently named “Atara T-cell Operations and Manufacturing (ATOM)” and is expandable to support cell therapy manufacturing processes, including allogeneic T-cell and CAR T immunotherapies. At closing, Fujifilm plans to offer positions to approximately 140 current highly-skilled manufacturing and quality staff at the site.

As part of the agreement, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies and Atara will enter into a long-term manufacturing and services agreement, which could extend to ten years to support the production of Atara’s clinical pipeline, which includes tabelecleucel (tab-cel) for the treatment of Epstein-Barr virus positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (EBV+PTLD).

The cell therapy manufacturing facility expands FUJIFILM Diosynth’s global CDMO manufacturing footprint to the West Coast of the U.S. and complements existing locations in College Station, TX, Watertown, MA, U.S.A., and its recently announced BioCampus in the UK.

“We are thrilled that through this acquisition we will add approximately 140 talented staff from Atara’s cell therapy manufacturing facility to the FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies family. The collective expertise of the team will further support our efforts as a world-class CDMO,” added Martin Meeson, chief executive officer, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies. “We also look forward to adding the facility to FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ existing global footprint and to bolster the expansion of our advanced therapies CDMO business.”

This acquisition is expected to be completed in April 2022, subject to customary closing conditions.