The 75,000 square foot facility will ultimately host more than 180 life science professionals, and is expected to be completed in Q4 2022. It will be located at 1055 Vernon Drive, in the Evolution Block building, in the False Creek Flats area of Vancouver, Canada.
Proprietary platform
Precision NanoSystems, a company dedicated to the development of genetic medicines, including mRNA vaccines and therapeutics, joined Danaher’s Life Sciences Platform in June.
The companies eye up a rapidly growing mRNA therapeutics and vaccines market; accelerated by the development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. They anticipate that the technology will be used to develop other vaccines and to treat other conditions of high unmet medical need, such as cancer and genetic diseases.
At present, most mRNA therapies and other types of genetic medicines in clinical development are designed to be delivered with the help of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). “PNI's Genetic Medicine Toolkit, including its proprietary GenVoy LNP delivery platform and NanoAssemblr microfluidic-based nanoparticle manufacturing platform, enables rapid development of genetic medicines,” say the companies. “PNI's validated technologies increase stability, efficacy, yield, and quality of non-viral genetic medicines, and lower the barrier to develop these important medicines.”
The Biomanufacturing Centre has been partially funded with $25.1m CAD ($20m USD) from Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF), supporting the government of Canada’s national biomanufacturing strategy to expand production capacity of crucial medicines for the prevention and treatment of diseases such as COVID-19. The government contribution will support the $50.2m ($40.12m USD) project to establish the biomanufacturing center dedicated to the production of RNA lipid nanoparticle vaccines and genetic medicines.
James Taylor, General Manager, Precision NanoSystems, says: “This is a huge leap forward in our mission to accelerate the creation of transformative medicines that significantly impact human well-being. We are proud to contribute to the Canadian biotechnology industry by enabling them to develop and manufacture the next generation of medicines.”
The Biomanufacturing Centre will support PNI’s client base of leading drug developers through clinical development, as well as Canada’s efforts for future pandemic preparedness through the manufacture of RNA vaccines.
It is led by Elaine Copsey, VP of Biomanufacturing Operations, and Lloyd Jeffs, Senior Director of Biomanufacturing Services. Hiring is ongoing to find scientists, engineers, and other skilled professionals.
“PNI is excited to build on our successful preclinical services to include clinical and GMP production," said Copsey. "We are growing our expertise as one of the industry leaders and will be hiring professionals with expertise in GMP operations including RNA and lipid nanoparticles manufacturing, process development, analytical testing, quality control, sterility, and quality assurance.
"PNI is looking forward to working with our clients to support all stages of their drug development process resulting in expedited therapeutic batches for clinical trials and routine production.”
