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Pre-tax profits have increased slightly at the Billingham-headquartered UK arm of a cell culture, microbial fermentation and gene therapy specialist, newly filed accounts have revealed.

FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies supports customers with the development and production of recombinant proteins, viral vaccines and gene therapies.

As well as its facility on Teesside the business has bases in Texas, North Carolina and Hillerød, in Denmark.

Results for FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies UK Ltd revealed revenues slipped to £114.2m in the year to 31 March 2020 from £125.9m 12 months earlier.

Gross profit climbed to £43.1m from £42.6m, and pre-tax profits rose to £22.8m from £22.1m.

Michael Lyons, global chief financial officer at FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, said:

“The results have demonstrated another strong year for the site.

“Our underlying business has remained solid resulting in an improvement in gross and operating profit. We have continued to invest in our people, plant, equipment and technologies and remain confident as we continue to grow.

“We are really proud of the staff here at Teesside and during the year have added a further 79 staff to our books. This reflects our ongoing commitment to invest both in our staff and our site.”

In August 2021, Novavax signed an agreement with the UK Government for the purchase of 60 million doses of NVX-CoV2373, the company’s Covid-19 vaccine.

Novavax also expanded its collaboration with FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, which will manufacture the antigen component of NVX-CoV2373 from its Stockton-on-Tees site.

The FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies site in the UK will have the capacity to produce about 180 million doses annually.

Chief operating officer Paul Found told Insider:

“As a company we have adapted, with a large number of staff working from home, social distancing and a number of other control measures being maintained on site. We have not had to furlough any staff and we continuously work diligently to balance the impacts of Covid-19 with running day to day operations.

“We are delighted to be selected to manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine during 2021 and continue to work diligently to ensure readiness when requested to initiate manufacturing.”

Credit: Insider Media