Serving Patients Through Innovation
At Incyte, our passion for serving patients is what drives everything we do, and we are proud to be a global organization with in-house capabilities ranging from early discovery to manufacturing and beyond.
We know our medicines can only have their intended impact if they reach patients—and for many patients, especially those with cancer, ensuring access to innovative medicines quickly is critical. With this in mind, we opened the Incyte BioPlant in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, which enables us to produce important, potentially life-saving medicines for patients with cancer.
The BioPlant facility allows our team to be agile in a new way. The in-house capabilities of the BioPlant increase our flexibility and therefore our ability to manufacture our medicines on our own terms and timelines versus relying on commercial manufacturing organizations and being held to fixed schedules or encountering capacity issues. The BioPlant’s priority and focus is to manufacture Incyte medicines, supporting both the Company’s portfolio as well as marketed products.
Learn more about the BioPlant from Michael Morrissey, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Technical Operations, and Claude Giroux, Vice President and Head of Global Supply and Manufacturing Operations, who help make delivering high-quality medicines to patients possible.
Leveraging State-of-the-Art Technology
The Incyte BioPlant is a multi-product, high-efficiency facility on a 13,300 meter2 campus housing production, technical operations and analytical labs. Specifically, the BioPlant manufactures biologically active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), the components of a medicine that produce its intended health effects, for commercial and clinical use. Currently the BioPlant is manufacturing a medicine used to treat certain types of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and being evaluated for various B-cell malignancies, as well as other candidates being studied as part of our clinical trial programs. We expect the production of additional medicines to be transferred to the facility in the future.
“Many people may not be aware that throughout the world there is a significant deficit in the amount of manufacturing capacity needed to produce biologic products and, specifically, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). As Incyte has a rich pipeline in this space, we knew it was critical to have our own manufacturing facility to help us better serve patients,” Michael describes.
“The opening of the BioPlant was key for us because it’s the first manufacturing site that has been developed, implemented and built by Incyte, giving us the power to control our own destiny,” says Claude. “We were intentional with the design of the BioPlant. It leverages state-of-the-art technology, including a high-capacity single-use production bioreactor, which enables us to more efficiently switch production between more than one type of drug as compared to a more traditional stainless steel reactor.”
Michael adds, “The full automation of the plant also sets it apart. It provides us flexibility to choose what is manufactured at the BioPlant and will help enable us to quickly bring certain medicines to patients following their approval.”
The Team Behind the BioPlant
The Global Technical Operations (Tech Ops) team at Incyte plays a unique role—working across medicine’s lifecycle from start to finish, from discovery to nomination to commercialization. Their diverse experience and expertise are critical to ensuring high-quality production and on-time distribution of our medicines.
“We are keenly aware that the role our department plays is critical for the company. Our team enables the delivery of our products to patients worldwide. This is our Mission,” said Claude. “For that reason, we encourage our team to challenge the status quo and think outside of the box as they develop solutions.”
The Global Tech Ops team and the BioPlant are examples of how Incyte combines passion and innovation to live our commitment to Solve On. for patients. And we look forward to continuing to serve patients across the globe leveraging this sophisticated technology and the expertise of our Global Tech Ops team.
“When I think of the work our team does, the three words that come to mind are flexibility, adaptability and focus,” explains Michael. “Our industry is incredibly fast-paced, and it’s imperative that we stay focused on our work and our goal of bringing high-quality medicines to patients across the world.”
