WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc., an R&D capability and technology platform company serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, will construct a new, 145,000-square-foot cGMP facility in Philadelphia for the manufacture of cell therapy products. This facility is designed for cell therapy products that contain viral vectors such as chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T cell) therapies. CAR T cells are T cells harvested from a patient’s body, engineered to target specific cancers, and then reintroduced into the body.

The new facility will become WuXi’s third cell therapy manufacturing facility when it becomes operational by mid-2016. It will provide single-source contract development and cGMP manufacturing capabilities to support the cellular therapeutic industry’s requirements. Specifically, the new facility will provide manufacturing capability and capacity for clinical studies and commercial supply. The new facility will expand upon WuXi’s existing 16,000-square-foot cGMP cell therapy manufacturing facility, as well as a 45,000-square-foot facility for the manufacturing of allogeneic and autologous cell-based therapeutics that is expected to be completed by mid-2015. By 2016, WuXi’s available manufacturing capacity in the US of 206,000 square feet would help meet the anticipated market needs of clinical and commercial production for cell-therapy companies. These facilities will complement the company’s current fully integrated facility for biological safety and lot release testing in Philadelphia.

Source: WuXi PharmaTech