Biomanufacturing

c. 7000 BCE · about 9,000 years ago

Villagers at Jiahu in China produced the earliest known fermented beverage

Residues in pottery from the Yellow River valley show a drink made from rice, honey and fruit, evidence that using living organisms to manufacture a consumable product is a Neolithic technology.

1919 · 107 years ago

Pfizer opened the first industrial fermentation plant for citric acid

Using the mould Aspergillus niger, the process ended reliance on imported Italian citrus for citric acid and became the model for large-scale industrial fermentation of organic acids and, later, antibiotics.

1943 · 83 years ago

US pharmaceutical manufacturers scaled penicillin production using deep-tank fermentation

Submerged fermentation in large steel tanks, developed under wartime pressure, turned penicillin from a scarce laboratory extract into a mass-produced drug, establishing industrial fermentation methods still used for antibiotics.

1956 · 70 years ago

Japanese researchers discovered a bacterium that made industrial amino acid fermentation possible

Kyowa Hakko scientists isolated Corynebacterium glutamicum, enabling low-cost microbial production of glutamate and later lysine, and establishing Japan as a founder of the modern industrial fermentation industry.

1957 · 69 years ago

Theodore Puck derived the Chinese hamster ovary cell line

The cell line isolated at the University of Colorado became the standard host for manufacturing complex biologic drugs, and CHO cells are still used to produce most therapeutic antibodies today.

1973 · 53 years ago

Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen demonstrated recombinant DNA technology

Splicing foreign DNA into bacteria and having it replicate gave biomanufacturing its foundational tool, turning microorganisms into programmable production hosts for proteins they do not naturally make.

1975 · 51 years ago

Georges Köhler and César Milstein invented the hybridoma technique for producing monoclonal antibodies

Fusing antibody-producing cells with myeloma cells created a way to manufacture a single, uniform antibody indefinitely, the basis of the monoclonal antibody industry that now dominates biologic drug sales.

1982 · 44 years ago

Genentech and Eli Lilly brought the first recombinant biologic drug to market

Humulin, human insulin manufactured by genetically engineered bacteria, replaced insulin extracted from animal pancreases and proved that engineered microorganisms could manufacture a protein drug at commercial scale.

1995 · 31 years ago

China became the world's largest producer of fermentation-derived antibiotics and bulk drug ingredients

State-linked and private manufacturers built vast fermentation capacity for penicillin, vitamin and amino acid intermediates, making China the dominant global supplier of bulk pharmaceutical ingredients still relied on today.

2004 · 22 years ago

NCBioImpact was established as a state-wide biomanufacturing training network

NCBioImpact was set up in 2004 as a comprehensive state-wide training network for biomanufacturing skills. Such workforce initiatives matter because biomanufacturing depends on personnel trained in the specialised equipment and cell-culture techniques used to grow microbes, animal cells and plant cells.

2020 · 6 years ago

mRNA vaccine manufacturers scaled a new biomanufacturing platform to billions of doses

Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna took lipid-nanoparticle mRNA production from laboratory scale to billions of doses within a year, establishing a manufacturing platform now being adapted for other diseases.

• The WHO launched a technology transfer hub in South Africa to spread mRNA manufacturing know-how

October 2025 · 10 months ago

China named biomanufacturing a strategic pillar for its next five-year plan

Proposals discussed at the Communist Party's autumn plenum set biomanufacturing alongside other frontier sectors as a priority for the 2026 to 2030 planning period, continuing state support for fermentation and cell-culture capacity.

• Shenzhen had already passed China's first dedicated biomanufacturing regulation

April 2025 · last year

Samsung Biologics brought its largest single biologics plant toward full operation

Plant 5 at the company's Songdo bio campus added large-scale mammalian cell-culture capacity, reinforcing South Korea's position as host to the world's biggest contract biologics manufacturer by volume.

2025 · last year

Fiocruz began domestic production of mRNA vaccine antigen

Brazil's Bio-Manguinhos institute, using technology licensed through the WHO mRNA hub network, produced its first batches of locally made mRNA vaccine antigen, part of a wider Latin American push for manufacturing independence.

2025 · last year

Afrigen Biologics took its self-developed mRNA vaccine into human trials

The Cape Town firm, hub of the WHO-backed mRNA technology transfer programme, moved its reverse-engineered COVID-19 vaccine candidate into a Phase 1 trial, a step toward African vaccine manufacturing self-sufficiency.

2025 · last year

WuXi Biologics expanded manufacturing outside China as US restrictions loomed

Facing possible exclusion from US federal contracts under proposed legislation, the contract manufacturer continued building capacity in Singapore and Ireland to keep serving Western customers from outside mainland China.

• The proposed BIOSECURE Act was the immediate driver

December 2024 · 2 years ago

Novo Nordisk took control of three former Catalent fill-finish plants

Completion of Novo Holdings' acquisition of Catalent transferred sterile fill-finish sites to Novo Nordisk, adding capacity dedicated to easing the shortage of injectable GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs.

• GLP-1 demand had outstripped fill-finish capacity industry-wide

September 2024 · 2 years ago

The US House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced the BIOSECURE Act

The bill would bar federal agencies from contracting with named Chinese biomanufacturers, including WuXi Biologics and WuXi AppTec, citing national security concerns over reliance on Chinese-made biologics.

• The measure was left out of the year-end defence authorisation bill

August 2024 · 2 years ago

India approved its BioE3 policy to build domestic biomanufacturing hubs

The Cabinet-approved Biotechnology for Economy, Environment and Employment policy set out support for bio-based chemicals, bioplastics and biopharmaceuticals, aiming to build regional biomanufacturing hubs and cut import dependence.

July 2024 · 2 years ago

Ginkgo Bioworks cut roughly a third of its workforce

The synthetic biology and foundry company restructured as pandemic-era biosecurity revenue fell away, narrowing its focus toward cell engineering services and away from broader platform ambitions.

May 2024 · 2 years ago

Florida banned the sale of cultivated meat

The state became the first in the US to prohibit sale of lab-grown meat outright, a move other states followed, complicating the commercial path for cultivated-protein biomanufacturers.