Exyte Builds mRNA Competence Center for Wacker in Halle

Exyte GmbH, offering services for the design, engineering and delivery of facilities for high-tech industries, is building a mRNA competence center at the Halle Biotech site of Wacker Chemie AG. The project, the company said, is making a considerable contribution towards strengthening the biopharma and life sciences segment at Exyte.

Construction has started at the Wacker Biotech site in the Weinberg Campus technology park. The Wacker Group concentrates its biopharmaceuticals activities within Wacker Biotech, a full-service provider for microbial manufacturing of pharmaceutical proteins. At the new competence center, Wacker will manufacture active ingredients based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) used in coronavirus vaccines and in medicinal products for the treatment of cancer amongst others.

On a total floor area of 7,400 square meters, of which 1,600 square meters will be clean room, four new production lines are to be built. Part of the capacities will be made available to the German government for its program to prepare for future pandemics. The aim of the Center for Pandemic Vaccines and Therapeutics established by the German Federal Ministry of Health at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut is to make pandemic vaccines available within a very short time period. This is to avoid bottlenecks in production and distribution of vaccines and thus damage caused by future pandemics.

“We are delighted to support Wacker in planning, building, and qualifying the new facility with our extensive expertise in the construction of highly complex, high-quality pharmaceutical production facilities,” said Wolfgang Büchele, CEO of Exyte. “We are making an important contribution towards producing cutting-edge mRNA therapeutics, both for personalized medicine and for the mass market, and are thus driving medical progress. Biopharma and life sciences is a strategic growth segment for us. The demand for pharmaceutical and biotechnological production facilities for manufacturing innovative medical solutions will continue to grow in the future. The Wacker project is an important milestone on our dynamic growth path, our ‘Pathway to Ten.’”

Melanie Käsmarker, managing director at Wacker Biotech, said, “The manufacture of pharmaceutical actives is subject to the highest standards. As such, the requirements for plant construction are just as high. In Exyte, we have the perfect partner for this project.”