Dive Brief:
- CDMO Brammer Bio has finished a major expansion of its Alachua, Florida facility, doubling its manufacturing capacity to support early-stage cell and gene therapy clinical trials.
- The contractor, which moved its headquarters from Florida to Cambridge, Massachusetts, last year, has invested $50 million in expanding its manufacturing capabilities this year — a move likely spurred by clinical advances in both cell and gene therapy candidates across the industry.
- "This added capacity is needed to meet the needs of a growing gene therapy pipeline, and it enables us to introduce new technologies into our drug substance and drug product manufacturing," said Christopher Murphy, Brammer Bio's chief manufacturing officer, in a Sept. 18 statement.
Dive Insight:
While the initial focus is on early clinical supply for Phase 1 and 2 studies, Brammer said the ultimate goal is to support commercial manufacturing of cell and gene therapies.
Brammer's capabilities include production of the viral gene transfer vector systems needed to shepherd gene therapies to their target in the body, such as adeno-associated viral vectors.
More than 160 of Brammer's employees are based in Florida. The company's acquisition of two sites from Biogen Inc. in January of this year added another 100 staff, bringing total headcount to about 300.
One of the newer additions to Brammer's team is CMO Christoper Murphy, who joined the company in June. During a 16-year stint with Sanofi Genzyme, Murphy helped establish the French drugmaker's clinical gene therapy facility in California.
Outside of Florida, Brammer hopes to wrap up renovating the Cambridge site it acquired from Biogen in the coming months. Originally designed for biologics production, Brammer will use the site for late-stage clinical development and commercial launch of gene therapy products.