Bristol-Myers Squibb recently began construction at the site of its new biologics manufacturing facility in Devens, MA. The company has committed $750 million for the construction of the large-scale, multi-product bulk facility, which will be designed to accommodate potential future expansion. Phase I of the project will consist of four main buildings: a manufacturing structure that will house six 20,000-liter cell culture vessels and one purification train, a central utility building, an administrative/quality control building and a warehouse/storage structure. The facility is projected to be operational in 2009, and the company plans to submit the site for regulatory approval in 2010. Phase I of the facility will require a workforce of approximately 350 employees. Future expansion of the site could lead to a total of 550 or more employees.

“The commitment to build this facility represents the single largest capital investment in the history of BMS, demonstrating the critical role we believe biologics will play in the future of our company,” said Jim Cornelius, chief executive officer, Bristol-Myers Squibb. “Building this facility provides additional manufacturing capacity to meet future patient need for our biologic therapies and helps position the company for long-term growth in this important area of medicine.”

The facility will support increased production capacity for Orencia and manufacture commercial quantities of compounds currently in development, should they receive regulatory approval. The company’s investigational biologic compounds include treatments for certain types of cancers and solid organ transplant rejection.

BMS currently manufactures biologic compounds in a company-owned facility in Syracuse, NY, and finishes and packages biologic compounds in Manati, PR. The Syracuse site will serve as the center of excellence in process development and early product launch for the company’s biologic compounds. The Manati facility will continue to finish and package biologic compounds. BMS also has biologic manufacturing agreements with third-party partners Lonza Biologics, Inc. and Celltrion, Inc.