Myeloid Therapeutics goes down under for new manufacturing site, with $66M local investment
Myeloid Therapeutics is looking across the Pacific to establish a new manufacturing site, and will be netting some major assistance from the local government as well.
The Cambridge, MA-based biotech announced that it is collaborating with the government of New South Wales in Australia to build a new RNA manufacturing and research facility. The facility will aim to speed up the commercialization of Myeloid’s RNA therapeutics, with the New South Wales government investing AU 96 million ($65.7 million) into the facility.
According to Myeloid CEO Daniel Getts in an interview with Endpoints News, the facility will be located on the Campus of Macquarie University in the Sydney area, topping out at around 2,500 square meters, or over 26,000 square feet. The new site will be able to produce synthetic RNA as well as mRNA and lipid formulation. It will include lab space as well.
The site, expected to be done by 2024 and to be operational by 2025, will have a headcount of around 67, Getts said.
Acording to Getts, a native of Australia, the company has selected New South Wales for several factors, telling Endpoints:
During the Covid pandemic, there was not even a place to buy GMP plasmids in Australia. And plasmid is an important, raw material if you like that goes into making GMP RNA. So there’s a significant hole within the infrastructure.
He also added that what is unique about New South Wales is that the region has made strides in RNA research over the last 30 years, particularly with circular RNA work. Getts also said that within New South Wales, 14 universities are doing work in the RNA space, which presents an opportunity for the new facility to help translate and advance technologies that come out of those institutions.
“As a population, Australia’s quite small but what the New South Wales Government has done, what I think is unique, are they’ve actually formed a coalition with those 14 universities and all the RNA technology is going into one bucket,” Getts said.
Within the new facility, Myeloid will be taking around 25% of space for its manufacturing purposes, while another 25% will go to the “government’s selected customers,” according to Getts. The remaining 50% will be used by an unnamed CDMO partner.
As for separating themselves from the pack, Getts said that one of the distinguishing factors that Myeloid’s facility will have, and why it will be successful, is that it is focused on taking the idle capacity and having that as a service business.
