Avid CGT plant becomes latest CDMO investment to come to fruition

Construction has finished on a 53,000 square-foot cell and gene therapy plant in Orange County, California, intended to support Avid Bioservices’ cell and gene therapy clients.

In October 2021, contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) announced its intention to step into the cell and gene therapy space through plans to build a 53,000 square-foot viral vector development and GMP manufacturing facility in Costa Mesa, California.

Two years on and at a cost of between $65 million to $75 million, the facility is complete. With an official opening planned for January 2024, the facility will produce suspension culture batches of up to 3,000 liters, as well as adherent cultures using fixed bed bioreactors.

DepositPhotos/dique.bk.ru

Back in 2021, Avid explained its move into cell and gene therapies as being driven by strong growth in the sector combined with the “lack of proven, high-quality GMP manufacturing expertise and capacity for viral vectors” in the CDMO space.

The shortage at the time was also acerbated by COVID-19, with many CDMO’s using their CGT capacity to support the lucrative pandemic-focused vaccines and therapeutics being sped through the clinic.

“Despite the COVID pandemic and any overall shifts in demand in the market, the strategic drivers for our expansion into CGT remain strong,” an Avid spokesperson told BioProcess Insider this week.

“We continue to see demand in the market for the capabilities we offer within our new CGT facility and look forward to continuing to engage with potential customers now that construction is complete.”

The project completion is the latest of a number of CDMO capital expenditure projects that have reached fruition this quarter, signifying the huge capacity drive undertaken in the first couple of years of this decade.

Earlier this month, Wheeler Bio opened its drug substance plant in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Meanwhile, AGC Biologics, eXmoor, Thermo Fisher/Patheon, MilliporeSigma, and WuXi Vaccines have all celebrated the completion of their respective investments.