PTC Therapeutics has signed a long-term lease agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) to gain access to approximately 185,000 square feet of space, including an existing state-of-the-art biologics production facility and supporting research and operations buildings on the BMS Hopewell, N.J. campus. PTC plans to further develop the biologics facility to support gene therapy production. In addition, PTC plans to move its research operations to a newly renovated building on the same campus. These facilities will complement and enhance existing operations at PTC global headquarters in South Plainfield, N.J. 
 
“The Hopewell facility is a vital part of our strategy to develop best-in-class therapeutics for patients with high unmet medical need,” said Stuart Peltz, chief executive officer, PTC Therapeutics. “Obtaining this facility allows PTC to execute on our plans of rapidly advancing our gene therapy pipeline. Access to best-in-class technology and highly qualified biologics operation specialists is key for PTC to meet our goal of becoming a leader in gene therapy.”
 
The facility is located on an existing BMS property encompassing over a million square feet which BMS is transitioning to a multi-tenant research and development campus. PTC intends to initially dedicate the cGMP suites on the site, which were recently renovated, to produce material to serve multiple pre-clinical and clinical programs, adding to the current pre-clinical production capacity in Bridgewater, N.J. Together with the start-up of the gene therapy development and production operations, PTC plans to relocate and expand its global discovery and research operations to the same site in 2020.