Past Events - Genentech Tour
On December 1, a group of AAPS members were joined by other pharmacy and medical students to take a tour of Genentech's new manufacturing plant in Oceanside, CA. The 500,000 square-foot, $500 million facility was built with the intention that it would produce the world's supply of Avastin, a VEGF-inhibiting antibody used in the treatment of metastatic colon cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.
The tour began in the scaled-down research area where 3 L glass carboys are used to optimize the growing conditions of Chinese hamster ovary cells that have been modified to secrete Avastin. We then moved over to the manufacturing area where six 15,000 L steel bioreactors that span two floors are used to produce the drug. We also visited the control room where computers are used to monitor and control every parameter of bioreactor activity, including temperature, pH, oxygen levels, and blending speed. We completed our tour with a trip through the purification room where antibody-binding resins and cross-flow filtration are used to isolate the final product.
We learned that each bioreactor produces enough Avastin for about 3000 patients, accounting for several million dollars worth of drug. Also, with a run-time of 30 days, the six reactors are run simultaneously so that enough drug is produced to supply hundreds of thousands of patients.
Special thanks to Dr. John Wooley of UCSD for coordinating the tour, and to Tim Kirchner of Genentech for hosting.
