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ImmunityBio, Inc., a clinical-stage immunotherapy company announced the successful completion of its acquisition of the leasehold interest in an ISO Class 5 pharmaceutical manufacturing space in western New York from global pharmaceutical company Athenex, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATNX).
The new state-of-the-art biotech production facility, located in Dunkirk, New York (Chautauqua County), includes clean rooms for upstream and downstream manufacturing activities, as well as fill and finish and large-scale lyophilization capabilities. The full-scale facility enables ImmunityBio to substantially expand and diversify its existing manufacturing capacity in the U.S. and through its strategic collaborators in Africa.
“We are thrilled to add the Dunkirk manufacturing facility and the talented team running it to our organization,” said Richard Adcock, President and CEO of ImmunityBio. “This facility provides production capacity at a significant scale here in the U.S. and at significantly lower capital cost than building a facility like this from the ground up. It is an important component of our overall strategic growth plan, accelerating our ability to develop, prove, and bring to market our most promising products and therapies in competitive and regulated markets.”
About ImmunityBio
ImmunityBio is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing next-generation therapies that drive immunogenic mechanisms for defeating cancers and infectious diseases. The company’s broad immunotherapy and cell therapy platforms—including Antibody cytokine fusion proteins, synthetic immunomodulators, vaccine technologies (hAd5 viral vector, mRNA, recombinant protein, and adjuvant), and genetically-modified, off-the-shelf natural killer cells (autologous and allogenic cytokine-enhanced memory NK cells)—activate both the innate (natural killer cell and macrophage) and adaptive (T cell) immune systems to create long-term “immunological memory.”
ImmunityBio’s clinical pipeline consists of 21 clinical trials—13 of which are in Phase II or III development—across 12 indications in solid and liquid cancers (including bladder, pancreatic, and lung cancers) and infectious diseases (including SARS-CoV-2 and HIV). Anktiva™, ImmunityBio’s lead cytokine fusion protein, is a novel interleukin-15 (IL-15) superagonist complex and has received Breakthrough Therapy and Fast Track Designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for BCG-unresponsive CIS non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).
The company has established GMP manufacturing capacity at scale with cutting-edge cell manufacturing expertise and ready-to-scale facilities, as well as extensive and seasoned R&D, clinical trial, and regulatory operations, and development teams.
