Kite Announces New Facility for Viral Vector Production

Kite, a Gilead company, announced plans to build a new 67,000-ft facility in Oceanside, California for the development and manufacturing of viral vectors, which are a starting material for the production of cell therapies.

According to a July 16, 2019 press statement, the new facility will be placed within an existing Gilead biologics operations facility in Oceanside and will become part of the company’s commercial manufacturing network that includes sites in California, Maryland, and the Netherlands.

The new site builds on the company’s current manufacturing capabilities to provide cell therapies for people with cancer, including its first commercially available chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy and investigational T cell receptor (TCR), Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel).

“The new viral vector facility in Oceanside is an example of our continued investment in achieving technical advances that will help meet the needs of people living with cancer today and in the future,” said Tim Moore, executive vice-president of technical operations at Kite, in the press statement. “Viral vectors are one of the key components in cell therapy production, however, the industry’s current development and manufacturing capabilities are not widely established and supply is limited. By pursuing our own viral vector facility, we will be able to advance viral vector development and supply to allow for accelerated process development of current CAR T and future pipeline therapies, while continuing to partner with external suppliers.”

Source: Gilead