Gritstone Oncology opens new biomanufacturing plant in California

Gritstone Oncology, which focuses on personalized cancer immunotherapy, opened a new biomanufacturing facility in Pleasanton, Calif., to produce the company’s first investigational products.

The 43,000-square-foot plant was designed to be the nucleus of Gritstone’s personalized cancer immunotherapy production efforts, the company said. The facility is fully operational and includes multiple clean rooms that will be used to manufacture therapeutics on an individualized basis.

The company, which focuses on non-small cell lung cancer and gastric cancer, expects to begin using the products from the facility in human clinical trials by mid-2018, and will ramp up hiring over the next six months.

“We are excited to launch the core of our manufacturing capabilities in Pleasanton as we move closer towards the initiation of human clinical trials next year,” Andrew Allen, M.D., co-founder and CEO of Gritstone, said in a statement.

Over the last two years, the company has raised nearly $200 million, and it completed a Series B round of funding in September that brought in $92.7 million.