Batavia Bioservices, headquarted in Leiden, The Netherlands, will launch a U.S. lab facility in Woburn, MA. Batavia provides DNA cloning to Phase I/II manufacturing for all major classes of biopharmaceuticals, including antibodies, proteins and vaccines.
 
The 5,500-sq.-ft. facility contains multiple BSL-2 labs dedicated to molecular biology, mammalian cell line generation, protein production and purification, and assay development. The company has hired six employees for the new facility, with plans to hire four more. 
 
Menzo Havenga, president and chief executive officer of Batavia, said, "We have been growing more than 400% in the past two years in the Netherlands and to keep up with customer demand we have decided to launch a facility in the Boston area."
 
Christopher Yallop, chief operating officer, added, "We have chosen the greater Boston area due to its importance as a biotech cluster. Positioning ourselves here allows us to be close to our customers, which we deem extremely important in delivering on time and on budget."