The recent biopharma manufacturing facility shuffle has been joined by Genentech, which is turning over a clinical manufacturing facility to Gilead Sciences. Gilead says in a statement that the deal helps it "build manufacturing capacity for preclinical and clinical biologic candidates while also bringing on a team of employees with strong expertise in this area."
Some 55 Genentech manufacturing and process development employees at the 70,000 square-foot Oceanside, CA, plant will be offered jobs.
Earlier this week, we reported on two transactions by Roche to divest it of U.S. API facilities. In the past few months, Teva and Elan announced plant closures, and Pfizer said it will buy back and then sell or close a New York plant.
Genentech's commercial manufacturing operations at Oceanside are not part of the Gilead deal. The big biotech, a unit of Roche, says it remains committed to commercial manufacturing there.
The clinical plant currently produces biologic compounds for toxicological, Phase I and Phase II clinical studies. Gilead will use the facility for the process development and manufacture of clinical trial supply for GS 6624, an investigational monoclonal antibody candidate.
- see the story
- here's the Gilead release