Fujifilm adds ADC linker-payload manufacturing at its Hirono plant

FUJIFILM Corporation said on October 6, 2026 that it will install equipment for making antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) components at the Hirono Plant in Hirono-machi, Futaba-gun, Fukushima Prefecture. A manufacturing subsidiary of FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Corporation runs the plant. The product is the linker-payload: the drug (payload) already joined to the linker that will attach it to an antibody. The new equipment is scheduled to start operating in 2028. Fujifilm did not disclose the investment or the production capacity.

FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical will offer process development and contract manufacturing for linker-payloads. Hirono already makes linkers under contract. The new equipment strengthens the plant's containment of highly potent substances so that it can take on payloads as well. The release lists reaction vessels, filtration and drying equipment and a preparative HPLC system, plus a new laboratory for process and analytical method development.

From payload to vial inside one group

The rest of the chain sits in Toyama. FUJIFILM Toyama Chemical's facility, due to start in 2027, will produce the antibody, run the conjugation and make the drug product by aseptic filling and freeze-drying. Once both sites run, the group can take an ADC from linker-payload to finished product. Fujifilm calls this Japan's first one-stop ADC CDMO service, based on its own research using data from the Japan CDMO Association. In September Fujifilm also announced a partnership with Taiho Pharmaceutical on ADC manufacturing technology.

Why the number of handoffs matters

An ADC is made in four steps: linker-payload synthesis, antibody production, conjugation and drug product manufacturing. Payload work needs containment to protect operators, which makes it a different kind of plant from an antibody facility. Because each step needs its own technology and quality systems, Fujifilm's release says, many drug companies use a different partner for each one. Every handoff brings its own technology transfer and quality agreement, and often a shipment of a highly toxic intermediate between sites. In some programs, payload and linker supply sets the pace of development.

The release gives no capacity, price or customer names. How much of the chain one client can book, and when, is still open.