Paragon Bioservices, a private equity-backed biologics CDMO with expertise in gene therapy and next-generation vaccines, has opened its new, state-of-the-art 200,000 square-foot GMP gene therapy biomanufacturing facility in Anne Arundel County, MD. The new facility is equipped with several 500L and 2000L single-use bioreactors for clinical through commercial material production. Paragon has GMP projects underway for leading gene-therapy biopharmaceutical companies.

“The grand opening today of our gene therapy biomanufacturing facility was a huge moment for the Paragon team,” said president and chief executive officer Pete Buzy. “Significant time and energy have been put into making this facility a reality, and I want to thank our senior leadership team and our investment partners, Camden Partners and NewSpring Health Capital. There are only a handful of other CDMOs like Paragon in the world that can do what we do, and we are prepared to meet the manufacturing demands of the double-digit growth in gene therapy that is well under way.” 

Paragon employs a team of more than 350 people at its University of Maryland, Baltimore BioPark location and at the new commercial facility. Paragon anticipates growing to more than 500 employees by the end of the year.

“We believe that our new facility greatly adds to the attractiveness of the region from both an economic and workforce development standpoint,” continued Mr. Buzy. “We’re part of a unique ecosystem centralized amongst many world-class academic and government research institutions and hundreds of life science companies on the I-270 corridor and beyond.”