Kite to Expand Cell Therapy Manufacturing

On April 24, 2019, Gilead’s Kite announced plans for a new facility in Frederick County, MD. The 20-acre site will significantly expand Kite’s ability to manufacture chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) therapies, including Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) and investigational T-cell receptor (TCR) cell therapies being evaluated in solid tumors.

“This new facility in Frederick County builds on our substantial technical capabilities and rapid progress in making personalized CAR-T and TCR cell therapies for people with cancer. As we advance our industry-leading cell therapy pipeline and seek to help a growing number of people with cancer, expanding and investing in our manufacturing capabilities is essential,” said Tim Moore, executive vice-president of technical operations at Kite, in a company press release. “With the Frederick County site, we will have the opportunity to build and design the facility tailored to our own innovative processes and with state-of-the-art features that will enable us to meet the future needs for cell therapies.”

According to the company, CAR-T therapies require many complex and carefully controlled, multi-step processes. The new facility will become part of the company’s growing commercial manufacturing network that includes sites in California and the Netherlands.

Source: Gilead