Dive Brief:
- Antibody and protein engineering company LakePharma has launched its LakePharma MicroBiomanufacturing Center in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, expanding its assay development, bioanalytical, process development and quality-control service capabilities.
- The site's newly-acquired 69,000-square foot building will also include GMP biologics manufacturing for Phase 1 clinical trials.
- The site cost LakePharma nearly $4.6 million, according to the Telegram & Gazette, and the company expects to add around 100 positions by 2020 to staff the site.
Dive Insight:
The role of contract development and manufacturing companies is a growing one, and may be particularly important for smaller biotechs seeking support in specialist areas such as proteins and antibodies. By investing money and expanding facilities, companies like LakePharma are moving to meet this need. LakePharma's choice of location — Hopkinton — is in close proximity to Cambridge and Boston, where the company has a large cluster of clients.
"The new facility is ideal for LakePharma as it provides the ability to offer fully integrated contract development and manufacturing organization capabilities," said CEO Hua Tu. "We will soon be able to provide our clients and partners with the end-to-end services they demand."
The new building previously belonged to Stryker Biotech, and will be run alongside the existing laboratory center in Worcester, Massachusetts. LakePharma also has laboratory centers in California (in Hayward, South San Francisco and Belmont_ and has plans for further centers in California.
In December 2017, the company announced $30 million in growth financing.
At the time, Hua Tu said expanding capabilities in biologics manufacturing was the next logical step in the company's growth, adding that it would allow the company to "grow our service offerings to meet the needs of our customers, while we continue to add capacity and become a fully-integrated CDMO."