Cellectis, an international gene editing company, has announced the grand opening of its new, 82,000 sq. foot manufacturing facility on October 13 in Raleigh, NC. 
 
Cellectis leverages the potential of gene editing to deliver therapeutic products to find innovative and curative solutions for people with cancer and rare genetic diseases. Alongside its manufacturing site in Paris, France, the opening of the Raleigh manufacturing facility marks the beginning of the company’s end-to-end in-house manufacturing capabilities – allowing GMP manufacturing of all cell products and reagents for clinical studies and, eventually, commercial distribution. 
 

Why This is Important
 

Cellectis will now have independence and control over the entire development, manufacturing, and production process. This ensures there won’t be setbacks in the development timeline that could hinder delivery of medicines to patients – an issue biotech companies have struggled with during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Also, Cellectis’ manufacturing operations now include its Raleigh-based facility for clinical and commercial UCART products, and its Paris-based facility, for critical starting supply production. Cohesively, the two facilities enable Cellectis to be a one-stop-shop – with the potential to bring a product candidate from the bench to a patient’s bedside. The company believes it has the capacity to generate up to 100+ doses from one engineering run.
 
Furthermore, the IMPACT facility is expected to bring 200 jobs to the Research Triangle Area in North Carolina – and significantly advance the biomanufacturing capabilities for the region.