Dive Brief:
- The Food and Drug Administration approved commercial production at Bristol Myers Squibb’s latest cell therapy manufacturing facility in Devens, Massachusetts, earlier this month.
- The new 244,000-square-foot facility represents the second significant expansion of the Devens site, which has been developing and producing clinical and commercial drugs for over a decade, according to the biopharmaceutical company.
- “Bristol Myers Squibb’s vision of putting more patients on a path to potential cure starts with delivering on the promise of our current product portfolio and future pipeline,” Lynelle Hoch, SVP and global cell therapy franchise lead, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
BMS is expanding its global manufacturing footprint to deliver a long-term supply of its cell therapies, including bringing production of key components in-house.
“We are working diligently to increase our product capacity through new sites like Devens,” Karin Shanahan, executive VP for global product development and supply at BMS, said in a statement.
The Devens expansion joins the company’s network of three cell therapy production facilities — one in Washington state and two in New Jersey — as well as another under construction in the Netherlands.
Along with growing production capacity for its cell therapy portfolio, BMS acquired a facility in Libertyville, Illinois, from Novartis in April to produce its own viral vectors, a key component of delivering cell therapies to patients.
“The addition of an in-house facility for viral vector production that complements our external partnerships affords us the ability to manufacture current and next-generation vector technology, and increase future capacity,” Shanahan said in an April statement.
Another company working to exert greater control over its cell therapy supply chain is Kite. In January, the company announced plans for a raw materials warehouse near its existing production facility in Maryland.
