Organogenesis to build world's largest living cell plant
Will be appointing more staff across all departments
Organogenesis has started construction of what it claims will be the world’s largest automated manufacturing facility to produce living human cells when completed in 2013.
Organogenesis, a US pioneer in regenerative medicine that was spun out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is in the middle of a US$63m multi-year expansion of its global headquarters, r&d and manufacturing facilities on its Canton, Massachusetts campus.
Cambridge-based SMMA/Symmes Maini & McKee Associates will be the architect and CRB Consulting Engineers the engineer for the regenerative medicine manufacturing plant. The company will use advanced robotic and modular manufacturing technologies within this facility, which it says will allow it to attract substantial resources and jobs to Massachusetts over the next ten years.
Organogenesis has also bought a nearby facility of 78,000ft2, of which approximately 30% will be used for warehousing/storage, taking the total size of its headquarters of four buildings to 330,000ft2.
‘This is a huge milestone for Organogenesis, as well as for the regenerative medicine industry as a whole,’ said Organogenesis president and chief executive Geoff MacKay.
‘We're growing in Massachusetts in size, in revenue and capacity and in order to keep pace with our rapid growth, we're hiring across all departments.’
Organogenesis has doubled its employees to 470 in the last five years, with its revenue exceeding $100m last year. It is committed to creating 280 new jobs by 2013.
The company will fund the new manufacturing centre from its cash flow and a $7.4m Massachusetts Life Sciences Center grant.
Organogenesis’ Apligraf living cell based product was approved last September for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers and other chronic wounds by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which gives the company a ‘major market opportunity’ in the Middle East. Apligraf is used to heal chronic wounds in patients in the US and around the world.
