New York City-based MeiraGTx recently unveiled a 150,000-square-foot plant capable of manufacturing commercial-scale gene therapy. The company opted to build a site with end-to-end manufacturing capabilities. It will provide its manufacturing services to potential collaborators.

The site includes three facilities. One is built to be flexible and scalable for clinical and commercial viral vector production. Another is for the manufacture of plasmid DNA, the critical starting material for gene therapy products. The last performs biochemical quality control testing.

The factory is ready to employ 100 in its current phase of operation, with the potential to gear up to 300.

According to the company, bringing all aspects of production in-house will cut costs, reduce regulatory risks and help avoid bottlenecks that have become all too common in gene therapy production. The site will cut months or even years off the time to manufacture products, the company said.