Kite Pharma has announced plans for a new 67,000-square-foot facility in Oceanside, California. The project is dedicated to the development and manufacturing of viral vectors, a critical starting material in the production of cell therapies. A Santa Monica-based company, Kite is part of biotech giant Gilead.
The plan is to build the infrastructure within Gilead biologics operations facility in Oceanside in California, and will become part of Kite's growing commercial manufacturing network that also includes sites in Maryland (US) and the Netherlands.
Upon completion, the manufacturing site will deliver cell therapies for people with cancer, including Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), Kite's first commercially available chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy, as well as Kite's investigational T cell receptor (TCR) and tumor neoantigen targeting cell therapies being evaluated in solid tumors.
By pursuing our own viral vector facility, we will be able to advance viral vector development and supply
"The new viral vector facility in Oceanside is an example of our continued investment in achieving technical advances that will help meet the needs of people living with cancer today and in the future," said Tim Moore, Executive Vice President of Technical Operations at Kite.
For Moore, viral vectors are one of the key components in cell therapy production, however, the industry's current development and manufacturing capabilities are not widely established, and supply is limited.
"By pursuing our own viral vector facility, we will be able to advance viral vector development and supply to allow for accelerated process development of current CAR T and future pipeline therapies, while continuing to partner with external suppliers," he concluded.