Officials at WuXi PharmaTech say the company will soon start construction of a new, 145,000-square-foot cGMP facility in Philadelphia for the manufacture of cell therapy products, which contain viral vectors such as chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T cell) therapies. These 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. According to Ge Li, Ph.D., chairman and CEO of WuXi PharmaTech, the facility will provide single-source contract development and cGMP manufacturing capabilities to support the cellular therapeutic industry's unique requirements. Specifically, the new facility, which will provide manufacturing capability and capacity to meet the demand for clinical studies and commercial supply, 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 U.S. 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,” said Dr. Li.