Legend Biotech appears to be on a mission to shake up its cell therapy development. A week after signing up to collaborate on a robotic cell therapy manufacturing system, the biopharma has unveiled plans for a new R&D site in Philadelphia.
The 31,000-square-foot facility in Philadelphia's Center City district is expected to open in the third quarter of 2025, the company said in an Oct. 3 release. Legend—one half of the team behind the J&J-partnered multiple myeloma CAR-T Carvykti—will use the facility to “advance its portfolio of next-generation cell therapies.”
Around 55 full-time employees are set to work from the site, which expands an R&D footprint for the company that currently includes a facility in Piscataway, New Jersey.
“Legend’s investment in this new site will offer our world-class research team an optimal environment and resources to expand on our cutting-edge innovation,” chief scientific officer and head of business development Guowei Fang, Ph.D., said in the release.
“We are particularly enthusiastic about the proximity to leading academic institutions in Philadelphia that are at the forefront of medical breakthroughs as we focus on advancing our sustainable pipeline of innovative cell therapies,” Fang added.
The site has been developed by Breakthrough Properties, which announced in 2022 that it had acquired the location. At the time, the real estate developer pointed out that Philadelphia had been the top recipient of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funding for cell and gene therapy in the previous year.
The 2300 Market Street block is “situated adjacent to the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University and within a short walk of some of Philadelphia's most esteemed academic medical centers,” Breakthrough told investors back in 2022.
The news that Legend will be moving in comes a week after the biotech announced it was teaming up to automate cell therapy production through the power of robotics via a collaboration with Multiply Labs. The agreement will see Legend receive “priority access” to Multiply’s automated systems with the aim of teeing up quicker and more seamless adoption of robotic technology versus traditional automation approaches.