JGC has won a contract from Pacific Biologics Co., Ltd., a venture company formed between Toyobo Co., Ltd. of Japan and NICHIREI Corporation of Japan for constructing animal cell culture facilities. The facilities will produce custom immunoglobulin drugs to order. The drugs will be produced for experimental purposes in clinical trials. JGC will provide engineering, procurement, construction, and validation support. Completion is scheduled for late September 2003.

The animal cell culture facilities are being planned in anticipation of increased demand for immunoglobulin drugs. The construction site is located in Otsu city, Shiga Prefecture, and overall investment is set at 2.5 billion yen. The facilities will accommodate cultures from the initial process stage through refinery processes and will have a culture capacity of 4,000 liters. The facilities will be built to comply with US GMPs and will have the flexibility required by the manufacturers that commission production.

JGC is a leading Japanese engineering company in the pharmaceutical engineering sector, having constructed over 180 pharmaceutical plants at home and abroad. In the area of animal cell culture facilities, JGC built the culture tanks at an R & D center. For more than a decade, JGC has been acquiring that enable culture maintenance in sterile conditions, the core technologies for animal cell cultivation. Drawing on these technologies, JGC involvement in such projects now numbers more than ten.