When Biomanufacturing Outgrows Its Buildings

As fermentation demand surges, US biomanufacturers weigh retrofitting old plants against building new ones from scratch

5 Jan 2026

At first glance, America’s biomanufacturers have a welcome problem: demand is booming. Yet the industry’s favoured tool, large-scale fermentation is running short of room. New drugs increasingly depend on it, but the tanks, plants and skilled staff needed to run them are not appearing fast enough.

Pharma is not the only culprit. Fermentation is spreading across fuels, food ingredients, enzymes and specialty chemicals. All compete for the same stainless-steel vessels, engineers and industrial land. Drug Making raises the bar further. Pharmaceutical fermentation faces tighter rules on quality, validation and traceability. Many industrial fermenters cannot be adapted easily, if at all.

This mismatch has revived interest in old assets. Rather than wait years for a new plant, some firms are buying legacy industrial sites and refitting them. The pitch is speed and thrift. Starting with walls, utilities and large vessels already in place should cut both timelines and capital costs. Companies such as Fermworx are often cited as pioneers, acquiring former processing facilities and modernising them for advanced fermentation.

The appeal is clear. The proof is thinner. Retrofitting remains more talked about than demonstrated at scale for pharmaceuticals. Industry watchers note that while several projects are under way, few have yet shown that converted plants can reliably meet drugmakers’ demands for compliance, output and consistency.

Against this uncertainty stands the safer option: building from scratch. Purpose-built facilities still set the benchmark. Liberation Bioindustries, for example, is investing in a large fermentation plant designed from the outset for pharmaceutical use. Such projects are slow and costly. But they offer clearer paths through regulation, easier scaling and tighter long-term control.

As a result, the sector is trying both. Retrofitting suits shared capacity and programmes where speed matters most. New builds appeal to companies that want dedicated infrastructure and predictable supply. Both serve a broader aim: expanding domestic fermentation capacity to reduce reliance on overseas suppliers and to harden supply chains.

For now, America’s biomanufacturers are hedging their bets. Old factories may yet find new life. But purpose-built plants still anchor the industry’s growth. Which path prevails will shape the next phase of American biomanufacturing.