Pfizer chooses Sanford, North Carolina site for $100m gene therapy … – BioPharma-Reporter.com

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.

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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