HUNDREDS of jobs could be on their way to the region after one of the vaccine heroes of the pandemic announced a massive investment at its Billingham site.

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies says it will invest £613million in the US and the UK to significantly increase its manufacturing capacity for state-of-the-art drug and vaccine components. The Echo understands that a huge slice of that money – hundreds of millions of pounds - will be coming to the Tees Valley.

The firm’s Billingham facility already employs 850 staff and is currently being used to produce 60million doses of the Novavax coronavirus vaccine - the only manufacturing site for the vaccine across the whole of the UK.

This unprecedented new investment will place the region at the very heart of the fight against Covid-19 and will be seen as a massive vote of confidence in the region and the quality of the staff here and will start to attract even more attention to what is fast becoming a world-renowned cluster of outstanding biotech work.

Welcoming the investment, Mayor Ben Houchen said: “After months of discussions with Government and Fujifilm I’m delighted at this amazing news. This game changing investment is a huge win for Teesside and for our life sciences sector.

“Fujifilm’s Billingham facility is already playing a critical role in the fight against the coronavirus by pre-producing the Novavax vaccine ahead of the MHRA giving it regulatory approval, and expanding its Billingham facility will allow Fujifilm to play an even more important role locally, nationally and internationally.

“This hugely significant investment is testament to the skills of our scientists and engineers and will cement Teesside’s reputation as a centre of excellence when it comes to life sciences and biologics.

“We are already seeing Fujifilm expanding their Billingham facility with the development of a new multi-million-pound BioCampus, this new investment will see even more skilled jobs come to our region in yet another sector Teesside is driving forward.”

The expansion will see gene therapy production increased ten-fold, cell culture capacity will be tripled and microbial fermentation output at the existing 5,000 litre scale facility will be doubled. Cell culture developed will also be upgraded to enable continuous manufacturing along with the addition of process and analytical capabilities.

Fujifilm is currently building a new BioCampus at its Billingham site, which Houchen has backed with nearly £4million in funding.

It is hoped the medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), will give the vaccine the green light in the coming months.

Teiichi Goto, president of FUJIFILM Corporation, said: “Fujifilm will never stop in its relentless pursuit to develop new technologies and provide the necessary manufacturing capacity to meet the needs of our customers and accelerate the growth of its business.

“We will contribute to promoting a healthy society and developing the healthcare industry by providing a stable supply of high-quality biopharmaceuticals with our advanced technologies and facilities.”

It is expected that the expected facility will be up and running by late 2023.