Pharmaron Starts Work on U.K. Cell & Gene Therapy Plant

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Chinese-owned Pharmaron (Beijing, China) is investing £151 million (US$186 million) to greatly expand its cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing space in Liverpool, U.K.

The news comes after the company was awarded an unspecified amount as part of a £17 million (US$21 million) grant made by the U.K. government's Life Sciences Innovation Manufacturing Fund (LSMIF) to four companies. The contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) is constructing an additional 8,000-square-meter viral vector and DNA manufacturing facility, which will result in a four-fold increase in gene therapy process development and analytical capacity accommodating viral vector, DNA and RNA drug substance, as well as drug product formulation.

Dr. Boliang Lou, chairman and chief executive officer of Pharmaron, commented, "I am delighted that we have been awarded this funding from the U.K. government. Securing this grant demonstrates the U.K. government's support and trust in Pharmaron to continuously expand our state-of-the-art infrastructure and top-notch scientific team at Liverpool to serve the gene therapy and vaccine development community in U.K. and abroad. We look forward to our new facilities coming online to support our partners that are delivering innovative, life changing medicines for patients in 2025."

Pharmaon purchased the Liverpool facility--formerly Allergan Biologics Limited (ABL)--in 2021 for US$119 million from AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) (North Chicago, Illinois). The company claimed that it is rapidly adding customers and that it had 29 gene therapy and vaccine projects running at the end of last year. Speaking about the project, Derek Ellison, vice president, Biologics Services Europe, Pharmaron, told BioProcess Insider: "Pharmaron has developed excellent University links for graduates, is a founding member of the Advanced Therapies Apprenticeship Community, sponsors post graduate degrees and is located in Liverpool, Northwest England which is an excellent hub for biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical manufacturing companies. The expansion will also provide career development opportunities for experienced staff."

Another company to benefit from the LSMIF grant was Ipsen (Paris, France), which is going ahead with a £75 million (US$93 million) project to boost its manufacturing of medicines for limb spasticity and other 'difficult to treat' neurological diseases at its facility in Wrexham, North Wales. The investment will create 39 jobs and safeguard a further 37, the government said.

Commenting on the grant, U.K. Science Minister George Freeman, said: "The U.K.'s £94 billion (US$118 billion) Life Science sector provides over 250,000 high skill jobs across the U.K. from drug discovery to diagnostics, medtech devices and digital health. The industry is being transformed by the pace of change: from AI to genomics, bio manufacturing to smart stents and personalized immunotherapies, technologies are converging to create a new era of advanced digital products. That requires new types of advanced manufacturing plant which is why we set up the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund, which today's news shows is working: converting £17 million (US$21 million) grants to four companies into £260 million (US$21 million) industrial investment."

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