German chemicals group Evonik has announced its plans to construct a manufacturing facility for lipids required for mRNA therapies, in the US.

The company is among the suppliers of lipids that are critical to producing messenger RNA (mRNA)-based drugs. Lipids are molecules that make up the building blocks of living cells. Besides protecting mRNA, lipids support delivering them to the accurate body parts.

They are required for packaging the mRNA molecules in Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine, reported Reuters.

It plans to build the $220m plant in Lafayette, Indiana.

The plant will receive up to $150m funding from the US government through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

Production from this facility is expected to start in 2025.

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The facility will become the company’s first lipid production site in the US.

It will have a larger capacity than the unified capacity of the existing sites in the cities of Hanau and Dossenheim in Germany.

Construction of the project is slated to start early next year.

Evonik CEO Christian Kullmann said: “With this investment in lipid production, we are further expanding our leading position on the global market and specifically strengthening our Health Care business.

“It supports our strategic transformation into ‘Next Generation Evonik’, contributing value-added solutions with superior environmental and socio-economic profiles to our customers.”

This project is expected to help create more than 80 skilled jobs in the Lafayette region.
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Image: Production from this facility is expected to start in 2025. Credit: Evonik.