Biotech firm confident

ICPbio managing director Earl Stevens says the Henderson factory is vital to the company's plans. Picture / Dean Purcell

Biological-products maker ICP Biotechnology says it is on target to reach its full-year profit forecast as it builds a new state-of-the-art factory.

Managing director Earl Stevens said the NZX-listed firm's new facility would help it achieve the current financial year forecast of $25.7 million in revenue and $6.1 million in trading profit.

Work began last week on the new Henderson factory, following building consent from Waitakere City Council.

Stevens said the facility could boost the value of protein production from about $200,000 to about $2.5 million a week by early next year.

"The new factory is just absolutely critical," Stevens said.

In August, Brent King's listed investment company, Viking Capital, increased its stake in ICPbio to 17.5 per cent.

ICPbio extracts proteins from blood plasma to make the media, serum and biochemicals used by other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The company planned to move its 24-hour-a-day plasma fractionation operations to the new facility by mid-November.

The firm leased the 2230sq m Henderson site in June and expected the final cost of the project to be about $7 million to $8 million.

Last month the company also spent more than $300,000 on an overhaul of its sterile manufacturing facility to ensure ongoing compliance with operational standards.

Last week the firm moved its research and development team to the new Henderson site. The new laboratory there would enable ICPbio to double the size of its research and development team on the back of a $402,832 Foundation for Research, Science & Technology grant received in August.