Belgian CDMO Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services has been on a run in recent of years expanding its operations around the world. That was the goal of an Indian joint venture buyout back in 2018—and now Ajinomoto is ready to double down on that earlier investment. 

Ajinomoto is building a 91,500-square-foot small molecule manufacturing facility at its existing Visakhapatnam, India, complex that will double the site's production capacity, the Belgian CDMO said Thursday. 

The small-molecule facility began construction in late July and is expected to go online in 2022, Ajinomoto said. 

The CDMO's newest facility will help produce active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and drug intermediates with a total of 310,000 liters of capacity. In addition, Ajinomoto has renovated its existing laboratory space to boost its R&D efforts. 

All told, the expansion and renovations are expected to add 60 new jobs at the facility, Ajinomoto said. 

“The increased manufacturing capacity at Aji Bio-Pharma India offers a significant advantage for our small molecule customers, who now have a variety of options to meet their manufacturing needs,” said Peter Stuyck, vice president and head of European operations.

RELATED: Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma buys Indian API plant from JV partner

Ajinomoto took control of the Visakhapatnam API site in August 2019 after buying out the rest of a joint venture with India's Granules OmniChem that was first established in 2011. 

The Belgian subsidiary of Tokyo-based Ajinomoto has been busy in recent years expanding operations.

In 2019, Ajinomoto absorbed GeneDesign, a Japanese CDMO, which produces nucleic acid drugs. GeneDesign has a 2,000-square-meter facility in Osaka that manufactures oligonucleotide APIs and does custom synthesis.