Instruments maker Thermo Fisher plans to spend $180 million to build a 290,000-square-foot site that will double capacity to make viral vectors, the inactivated viruses used to convey gene therapies into human cells.
Private equity player Ampersand Capital Partners, which this year sold Brammer Bio for $1.7 billion, is investing in another U.S. CDMO, this one targeted at sterile injectables.
Three years ago, Pfizer anted up $150 million in cash to buy Bamboo Therapeutics in Chapel Hill, NC as it cautiously stuck a toe in the small gene therapy pool of research and development.
Brammer Bio to set up new plant in Norton, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Brammer Bio is planning to set up a new manufacturing facility in Norton, Massachusetts.
Supports clinical and commercial supply needs for multiple batten disease programs
Another deal has been struck in the rapidly evolving market for gene therapy manufacturing. Just two months after Catalent jumped big time into the gene therapy realm, it is adding a couple of small vaccine production sites and a 100 employees to its operation.
Thermo Fisher Scientific has absorbed HighChem, the Bratislava, Slovakia-based developer and trademark-holder of the Mass Frontier mass spectrometry software used to identify the structures of small molecules.
With the market for new oncolytic viral and gene therapies developing rapidly, it is no surprise that private equity investors are looking for small contract manufacturers they can buy, build and sell off. Ampersand Capital Partners is one of the players in the middle of that scramble.