The resulting facility will enhance the scale and scope of its services to vaccine, cell and gene therapy customers, and will also allow it to continue expanding its scientific team at Liverpool, reported Pharmaron.
The total investment in capital and talent supporting the expansion is estimated at around £151m (US$186.4m).
The extension will enable a four-fold increase in gene therapy process development and analytical capacity accommodating viral vector, DNA and RNA drug substance, and drug product formulation. The project also supports future commercial scale GMP capacity.
Construction activities commenced in January 2023 and facility handover is expected in 2024.
Pharmaron acquired the Liverpool CGT facility from AbbVie in 2021; it had 29 gene therapy and vaccine projects running at the site throughout 2022.
The expansion will allow this pace of growth to continue, said the developer.
New partnerships
The Liverpool site is supporting the development and clinical manufacture of CTx001, an AAV-based gene therapy for the treatment of geographic atrophy (GA), late dry age-related macular degeneration, under the collaborative deal Pharmaron secured with Complement Therapeutics Ltd (CTx).
The Hong Kong listed company is also working with Vaccitech on the development and cGMP manufacturing of its adenoviral vector program, again taking advantage of the Liverpool facility to do so.
Pharmaron has four other sites in the UK: in Cardiff, Hoddesdon, Rushden, and Northumberland, as well as sites across China and the US.