Teva completes facilities purchase in Pennsylvania

By Murielle Gonzalez | Published: 15-Jul-2019

Investment will see the Israeli drug-maker set up a Research & Development campus in the US

Hot on the heels of the agreement between Teva Pharmaceuticals and Just Biotherapeutics (JustBio), the Israeli company has completed the purchase of facilities in West Chester, Pennsylvania (US). The move is part of Teva's plan to extablish a North America Research & Development (R&D) campus to focus primarily on biologics.

“With our late-stage biologics R&D development teams co-located on a single campus, the company has created a one-stop shop for biologics development and clinical manufacturing,” said Mehran Yazdanian, Senior Director, Specialty R&D Scientific Strategy & Operations, Global R&D and Site Head.

He continued: “From cell bank to syringe, our West Chester R&D campus is home to many of the North American-based R&D teams and processes that will bring more biologics treatment options to patients, and support Teva’s global mission to improve lives.”

Teva purchased 400, 500 and 600 Brandywine Parkway, which the company had been leasing since 2007 and, along with 100, 200 and 300 Brandywine Parkway, now owns approximately 314,000 square feet in West Chester dedicated to feeding Teva’s future pipeline and portfolio.

High-productivity manufacturing process

The creation of a new high-productivity manufacturing process for biotherapeutics is the ultimate goal of a collaboration agreement between Just Biotherapeutics (JustBio) and Teva. Both companies made the annoucement two weeks ago.

“We are delighted to leverage our deep experience to assist Teva in their biologics efforts,” said Dr James Thomas, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of JustBio. “Working with a multinational company, like Teva, will create greater access to biologics through the technological innovation that Just will deliver.”

In a move to lower the cost of manufacturing, JustBio will use its knowledge and technological expertise on the design and development of a high yielding manufacturing process for one of Teva’s more complex products in development.

Both companies firmly believe that innovation in both biologics development and manufacturing can play a role in increasing patient access.

“Just’s deep expertise in engineering and manufacturing of biotherapeutics combined with their unique technology platform will enable Teva to work toward developing processes that will help achieve greater efficiencies and improved outputs. We value our partnership with Just in that it will help accelerate our ability to advance our Teva mission of improving the lives of patients,” said Steffen Nock, Senior VP of Teva Specialty R&D.

The collaboration will be enabled by a cross-functional team based at Just’s facility in Seattle, WA, working together with Teva’s Specialty R&D team based in West Chester, PA.

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