Bayer Opens First Cell Therapy Mfg. Facility in Berkeley, CA

Will supply the material for late-stage clinical trials and potential commercial launch of BlueRock Therapeutics’ bemdaneprocel.

Bayer AG opened its first Cell Therapy Launch Facility in Berkeley, CA to create the capacity to bring cell therapies to patients on a global scale. The $250 million, 100,000-sq.-ft. facility will supply the material required for late-stage clinical trials and potential commercial launch of BlueRock Therapeutics’ bemdaneprocel (BRT-DA01), an investigational cell therapy currently in development for Parkinson’s disease. It also includes space for a second module of production suites to support additional cell therapies in Bayer’s portfolio. BlueRock is a clinical stage, cell therapy company and wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer AG.
 
The new Cell Therapy Launch Facility features flexible, modular space for cell culture, viral transduction and automated filling of cell therapies leveraging Biotech@Bayer expertise in iPSC and CAR-T characterization, process development, analytics and clinical to commercial production.
 
“Cell therapy represent a groundbreaking class of medicines and is an area where Bayer is making a significant investment to research potentially transformative treatment approaches for people with unmet medical needs,” said Sebastian Guth, President of Bayer U.S.A. and Pharmaceuticals North America, and member of the Pharmaceutical Executive Committee. “Our new cell therapy facility represents true innovation in product development and manufacturing in addition to contributing to Bayer’s sustainability goal as our first fully electric pharmaceutical manufacturing plant.”
 
“Our teams are driving innovation in late-stage development and manufacturing with a goal of bringing transformational cell and gene therapies to patients on a global scale, and this facility will enable us to make it real,” said Jens Vogel, Sr. Vice President and Global Head of Biotech for Bayer’s Pharmaceutical Division. “Bayer is collaborating with biotech innovators, academia, and equipment and automation suppliers to establish platforms that would help bring more therapies to patients faster.”

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