Minister of the Economy, Trade and Industry, Yasutoshi Nishimura has visited our Minami-soma plant on October 30th to see our new mRNA therapeutics and vaccine manufacturing facilities which is now under construction.

As announced in October 3rd press release*, ARCALIS and Meiji Seika Pharma(MSP)jointly submitted an application to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and adopted for the “Biopharmaceutical Production Base Development Project for Strengthening Vaccine Production System”.

Minister Nishimura visited from 1st floor to 3rd floor of Drug Substance facility, and Satoru Iino, Co-CEO of ARCALIS accompanied with him explaining about our construction plan and estimated manufacturing capacity.

※“Construction plan of mRNA therapeutics and vaccine production facility has been adopted for “Biopharmaceutical Production Base Development Project for Strengthening the Vaccine Production System” by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry”
https://corp.arcalis.co.jp/en/NEWSEVENTS/dualuse_2

Used panels to explain our construction plan, floor map, production capability etc.

From the left,Masahiro Higuchi (Member of the Board and Managing Executive Officer of MSP),Kazuo Monma(Mayor of Minami-soma city),Yasutoshi Nishimura(The economy, trade and industry minister), Satoru Iino (Co-CEO of ARCALIS) Toru Kurosawa (Member of the Board and Managing Executive Officer of MSP), Koji Watanabe (Executive Officer, Production Division of MSP)

“We have high expectations for ARCALIS Minami-soma plant, which will be able to manufacture vaccines and therapeutics from APIs to drug formulations in Japan. We hope that the plant will contribute in terms of reconstruction of Fukushima.” Minister Nishimura stated.

Drug substance facility is scheduled to start operation in August 2023, and Drug production facility is scheduled to start operation in 2026.