When Evonik manager Thomas Riermeier took over as head of the Health Care business area at the specialty chemicals company three years ago, life was still dominated by the corona pandemic. "Many colleagues have worked energetically and passionately to ensure that we can all come together here today," said Riermeier on Wednesday at the opening of a new production facility in the Wolfgang Industrial Park. Since 2021, important precursors for BioNTech's corona vaccine have been manufactured in Hanau. The new facility will enable the development of further drugs.
"Lipid Launch System" is the name of the labyrinth of metal and glass tubes that is entwined around two large metal boilers on an approximately four-meter-high wall in a simple functional room. In fact, it is twice as high, because the tubes continue to the next floor. For an industrial plant, however, the dimensions are manageable, and there is a reason for this: The plant is intended to close "the gap between research and commercial production," as Riermeier explains. Here, lipids are to be produced in rather small quantities of half a kilogram to a maximum of ten kilograms for drugs that are still in the test or market launch phase.
Lipids are fats and fat-like substances that serve as carriers for vaccines and other mRNA-based drugs. The best-known example is the corona vaccines from BioNTech and Moderna. mRNA – the abbreviation stands for messenger RNA, to German messenger ribonucleic acid – is an intermediate product between DNA and proteins. It translates the genetic material into instructions for the production of the appropriate proteins. In corona vaccines, synthetic mRNA is injected, which contains instructions for a characteristic viral component. As a result, the immune system learns to fight off the virus.
Evonik supplies two out of four lipids for BioNTech vaccine
In order to introduce synthetic mRNA into the body, it requires a protective cover. This is where lipids come into play. Their advantage is that they protect the mRNA from immediate decomposition, but then gradually dissolve in the cell and release the messenger substance, explained Lars Geiger, who is responsible for product management for medical substances worldwide at Evonik. Together with more than 300 colleagues, he built a large production plant for lipids that BioNTech had ordered for its vaccine within weeks at the beginning of 2021. Four different lipids are required for the protective shell around the mRNA molecules, two of which are supplied by Evonik – partly from Hanau, partly from the Dossenheim site near Mannheim. Other building blocks for the lipid nanoparticles, such as the spherical protective shell around the mRNA molecules, are produced by Merck in Darmstadt.
The pharmaceutical industry is working on further mRNA drugs for the treatment of cancer and hereditary diseases. The progress achieved through mRNA and lipid nanoparticle technology is comparable to the development of antibiotics a good 80 years ago, said Johann-Caspar Gammelin, head of the Nutrition and Care Division at Evonik. The companies and universities in the Rhine-Main-Neckar region formed a competence center for pharmaceutical biotechnology. "Together we can make Germany back to what it used to be – the pharmacy of the world."
However, Evonik is investing in the United States for large-scale lipid production. In Indiana, a production plant is being built for a total of 220 million euros, with the US government contributing 150 million. Evonik would not have received such funding in Germany, Gammelin explained. Evonik is making advance payments with the production facilities: "We are building capacities here for products that will not arrive until 2027, 2028 or 2029."
Single-digit million euro amount for the new plant in Hanau
According to earlier information, investments in the expansion of the Hanau and Dossenheim sites for vaccine production amounted to around 25 million euros. For the now additionally opened, smaller lipid production plant, a "mid-single-digit million amount" had been spent, said Gammelin. Their construction was necessary because the production of smaller quantities, such as those required for clinical studies, does not work in the larger plant: The devices there could not stir quantities of less than ten kilograms, for example.
The system is operated around the clock in five shifts, with two employees per shift. Three people had been newly hired for this purpose. In total, around 3500 people work at Evonik in Hanau, including 60 researchers. Among other things, they are currently examining whether one of the lipids used for the BioNTech vaccine can be modified to rule out possible allergic reactions. However, it is still unclear whether the allergic reactions to the lipids that occasionally occur after vaccinations are reduced.