For the second time this week, Thermo Fisher has opened a new manufacturing facility—this one dedicated to viral vector production in Plainville, Massachusetts.
The 300,000 square-foot-plant, located 40 miles south of the company’s headquarters in Waltham, will employ 300 people and manufacture viral vectors, which are critical components in the development of gene therapies.
This is Thermo Fisher’s sixth viral vector plant between the United States and Europe. The site has a sustainable construction design, the company said, with flexible lab and production suites adjacent to warehousing and offices.
Thermo Fisher revealed plans to build the site in May 2020, estimating its cost at $180 million and saying it would represent a twofold expansion of its viral vector capacity.
Meanwhile, Thermo Fisher last year revealed a $650 million investment effort to rapidly expand its capacity. One of the goals of the investment push is to serve all stages of gene therapy development and production.
To that end, the Plainville site includes translational science labs, plasmid DNA manufacturing, viral vector services, cell therapy production and integrated packaging and distribution.
Thermo Fisher went all in on viral vector manufacturing in 2019 with a $1.7 billion purchase of Brammer Bio, picking up the CDMO’s commercial-ready plants in Lexington and Cambridge, Mass. and a preclinical and clinical-stage site in Alachua, Florida.
The Plainville site becomes Thermo Fisher's second new plant this week after the company opened a $105 million, 400,000-square foot factory in Lebanon, Tennessee, on Monday. That site is Thermo Fisher's largest single-use technology plant and will eventually employ 1,400 people, the company said.