Kite, a Gilead Sciences biopharmaceutical company for cancer immunotherapies, has announced plans for a 67,000-square-foot facility in Oceanside, California for the development and manufacturing of viral vectors. Viral vectors are a starting material in the production of cell therapies.

The new site builds on Kite’s existing manufacturing capabilities to deliver cell therapies for people with cancer, including Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), Kite’s first commercially available chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy, and for investigational T cell receptor (TCR) and tumor neoantigen-targeting cell therapies being evaluated in solid tumors.

Kite’s facility will be constructed within an existing Gilead biologics operations facility in Oceanside and will become part of Kite’s commercial manufacturing network that includes sites in California, Maryland and the Netherlands.

Source: Gilead Sciences