Scorpion Biological Services to Construct Kansas Biomanufacturing Facility

Scorpion Biological Services , a biopharma contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), has announced a planned development partnership with a private developer, the state of Kansas, and local and university affiliates, which will support the construction of a new biodefense-focused large molecule and biologics biomanufacturing facility in Manhattan, KS.

The $650 million commercial-scale facility will service approximately 144,000 liters of biomanufacturing capacity across 48 bioreactors and is being designed with large molecule biologics manufacturing in mind. One goal of the facility will be to help scale production of ANTHIM, which is an antitoxin against anthrax.

In order to be compliant with Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Department of Defense requirements for the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), Scorpion plans to begin manufacturing ANTHIM by mid-2024. Further, the CDMO is planning a phased building approach to complete the production train for ANTHIM first by April 2024; there are also plans to complete a new train every 15 months thereafter.

Scorpion projects that the Manhattan facility will be complete, fully functional, and staffed by April 2027. Most of the facility is expected to be for commercial CDMO services, but the company is exploring the design of trains focused on other products for the SNS, among others.