update

Pfizer chooses Sanford, North Carolina site for $100m gene therapy plant

By Gareth Macdonald

- Last updated on GMT

iStock/farakos
iStock/farakos

Related tags North carolina Gene therapy

Pfizer has chosen a site in Sanford, North Carolina for a gene therapy production plant, just 40 miles from its recent acquisition Bamboo Therapeutics Inc.

The US drug firm had been search for a site since March​.

According to North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Pfizer will spend $100m (€85m) on the new facility and has also committed $4m to support postdoctoral fellowships in North Carolina universities for training in gene therapy research.

The project will create jobs that deliver “a total payroll impact of more than $3.9m each year to the community” according to the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership.

The project will be part funded by a $250,000 grant previously awarded to Wyeth – which was acquired by Pfizer in 2009 - by the One North Carolina Fund, which helps local Governments attract economic investment.

A Pfizer spokeswoman confirmed the story but declined to comment further, telling us "Pfizer recently announced that we’re moving forward with plans to invest in a new gene therapy manufacturing facility in Sanford. This work is still in the preliminary stages and we aren’t able to share additional detail at this time."

Bamboo buy

The decision follows a little over a year after the US drug manufacturer acquired Bamboo Therapeutics​, a North Carolina-based gene therapy developer.

The deal included a recombinant Adeno-Associated Virus (rAAV) vector design and production technology, a Phase I candidate for Giant Axonal Neuropathy and a preclinical programme targeting Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD).

Pfizer also gained a 11,000sq ft gene therapy manufacturing facility in Chapel Hill that Bamboo bought from the University of North Carolina in 2016.

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