Pharma Manufacturing Covers 2026 Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) Honorable Mention Category Winner: FUJIFILM Biotechnologies
Pharma Manufacturing covered FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ ambitious effort to replicate its large‑scale biologics manufacturing facility in Hillerød, Denmark, at a new site in Holly Springs, North Carolina, United States. The initiative represents one of the most significant biopharmaceutical infrastructure projects undertaken in the United States in recent years. The article highlights how the company adopted a modular, highly standardized design strategy to accelerate construction, reduce risk, and ensure consistent global manufacturing capabilities. This approach enabled rapid progress on the North Carolina facility and earned the project industry recognition, including 2026 ISPE FOYA submission finalist status and, more recently, ISPE FOYA Category Winner recognition with an Honorable Mention.
At the heart of the project is FUJIFILM’s desire to create a global network of facilities that operate with the same equipment, workflows, and quality systems. The Denmark site served as the blueprint: a proven, high‑performing facility with established processes and a track record of regulatory success. By replicating its design, FUJIFILM aimed to minimize variability, streamline technology transfer, and ensure that customers could expect identical performance and product quality regardless of manufacturing location.
The article explains that the North Carolina facility is massive in scale — a multi‑billion‑dollar investment spanning drug substance manufacturing, fill‑finish capabilities, and supporting infrastructure. To deliver such a complex project on an aggressive timeline, FUJIFILM partnered with design, engineering, and construction firms experienced in modular and standardized facility development. Rather than designing each building system from scratch, the team reused engineering models, equipment specifications, and process layouts from the Denmark site. This reuse strategy significantly reduced design time and allowed construction teams to work from a validated template.
One of the most notable advantages of this modular replication approach is risk reduction. Biopharmaceutical facilities are notoriously complex, with thousands of interconnected systems that must meet stringent regulatory requirements. By reusing a design that had already been proven in Denmark, FUJIFILM minimized the likelihood of unforeseen engineering challenges or regulatory setbacks. The article emphasizes that this strategy also improved cost predictability and reduced the number of design‑related change orders that typically slow large capital projects.
The North Carolina project also incorporated lessons learned from the Denmark facility’s operation. While the core design was replicated, the team made targeted improvements to enhance efficiency, sustainability, and worker experience. These refinements included optimized utility routing, improved cleanroom layouts, and updated automation strategies. The result is a facility that maintains global standardization while benefiting from continuous improvement.
The article underscores the broader industry implications of FUJIFILM’s approach. As demand for biologics manufacturing capacity continues to grow, companies are under pressure to build faster and more reliably. FUJIFILM’s success demonstrates that modular replication—when executed with discipline and supported by strong cross‑site collaboration—can dramatically accelerate deployment of complex manufacturing assets.
View the full list of 2026 FOYA Category Winners
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Pharma Manufacturing provides news articles, detailed analyses, and case study examples of how pharmaceutical companies are addressing evolving challenges facing the industry related to drug development, scale-up and manufacturing, and more.