March 31, 2015
Asahi Kasei Medical Co., Ltd.
Construction of a new spinning plant for PlanovaTM BioEX filters
Asahi Kasei Medical will construct a new plant for the spinning of hollow-fiber membranes for PlanovaTM BioEX filters at the site of its Planova Oita Plant in Oita, Japan. This addition will increase capacity for PlanovaTM BioEX filters to 10,000 m2 per year.
PlanovaTM virus removal filters are used to enhance safety in the production process for biotherapeutic products such as biopharmaceuticals and plasma derivatives. The outstanding performance of PlanovaTM filters—combining high rates of virus clearance with high rates of protein recovery—has been widely recognized throughout the world.
Launched in 2009, PlanovaTM BioEX filters incorporate durable hydrophilic PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) hollow-fiber membranes that can cope with the harsh processing conditions typical of state-of-the-art biopharmaceutical manufacturing. With its superior viral clearance performance in high protein concentration solutions, PlanovaTM BioEX filters are increasingly adopted by major pharmaceutical manufacturers, especially in Europe and the US.
The new spinning plant will enable Asahi Kasei Medical to meet growing demand for PlanovaTM BioEX filters as higher protein concentrations become more common in the manufacturing process of biotherapeutic products. Asahi Kasei Medical will continue to contribute to greater safety of biotherapeutic products by developing high-quality and high-performance products in accordance with market needs, while proactively investing in manufacturing facilities.
Key features of PlanovaTM BioEX filters:
- Optimized for filtration under high protein concentrations
- Suited to high pressure filtration
- SIP (steam in place) compatible
- Superior validated virus filtration performance, even with small parvoviruses
- Various filter surface area sizes, making for easy scale up or scale down
Outline of the new plant
Location: Oita, Japan
Groundbreaking: August 2015
Completion: August 2016 (scheduled)
For more information, please contact:
Asahi Kasei Corp.
Corporate Communications
Phone: +81-(0)3-3296-3008
Fax: +81-(0)3-3296-3162
