Sana Biotechnology cuts the ribbon at new manufacturing facility near Seattle

Sana Biotechnology celebrated the start of a brand new chapter on its journey to make medication that deal with sophisticated illnesses, reducing the ribbon exterior the corporate’s new manufacturing facility in Bothell, Wash., on Friday.

Sana broke floor on the 80,000 square-foot facility one 12 months in the past after switching from a web site in Fremont, Calif.

The Bothell facility will home Sana’s proprietary most cancers drug program. The cell and gene remedy firm plans to fabricate different medication on the similar web site sooner or later.

“To construct a facility, it’s a must to know your course of,” stated Sana CEO Steve Harr, “and to know your course of you’ve needed to make some affordable progress in treating individuals.”

Sana, which launched in 2019 and had a record-breaking IPO in 2021, has one drug program prepared for scaled manufacturing — allogeneic CAR-T cells focusing on blood cancers like leukemia and autoimmune illnesses.

Sana has developed a proprietary gene-editing mechanism that blinds an individual’s immune system to engineered therapeutic cells, which it might assault in regular circumstances. This method has cost-savings potential as a result of it’s extra scalable than current T-cell therapies, which contain utilizing an individual’s personal cells.

Sana has 4 medication in human testing: two for most cancers, one for autoimmune illness and one other for kind 1 diabetes.

On the ceremony Friday, Washington Rep. Kim Schrier stated she is amongst thousands and thousands within the U.S. residing with kind 1 diabetes and known as Sana’s analysis “breathtaking.”

The diabetes program entails turning stem cells into insulin-producing islet cells. After promising leads to primate research, Sana launched a human scientific trial with the expertise earlier this 12 months that’s set to wrap up subsequent spring.

The corporate hopes to construct a producing course of for the diabetes drug on the Bothell facility as soon as the science is able to scale.

Harr stated Sana spent greater than $500 million on manufacturing sciences and increase manufacturing functionality. Controlling the manufacturing course of means Sana can monitor high quality and rent its personal personnel.

With the College of Washington’s Bothell campus simply across the nook and different drug manufacturing corporations within the neighborhood, Harr known as the encompassing area a beautiful space for expertise.    

Sana took possession of the constructing, which is owned by Alexandria Actual Property, just a few months in the past and has as much as 40 staff working within the facility. It’s ready to accommodate lots of as the corporate expands operations. 

Washington state Rep. Suzan DelBene, Bothell Mayor Mason Thompson, and Sana CTO Snehal Patel additionally participated within the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Sana’s inventory has fallen because the firm went public three years in the past, however is up 20% to this point in 2024.

The corporate’s internet losses grew to $107.5 million within the first quarter this 12 months, up from $82.1 million within the year-ago interval. R&D bills have been $56.4 million in Q1, in comparison with $67.2 million within the year-ago quarter. It had $311.1 million in money, money equivalents, and marketable securities as of March 31.

Sana stated in October that it might lay off 29% of its workforce, citing a “strategic re-positioning” together with delays to sure initiatives. It beforehand minimize 15% of its employees in November 2022.

The corporate had 328 staff as of December 2023.

Sana has a lab for scientific analysis in Seattle and extra areas in South San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass., in addition to a small analysis group in Rochester, N.Y.