IDI Selected by Healthpoint to Manage Facility Remodel
Healthpoint Biotherapeutics to upgrade Manufacturing Facility
6/20/2012, fwbusinesspress.com, Aleshia Howe reporter
Healthpoint Biotherapeutics announced plans to upgrade its 80,000-square-foot research and manufacturing facility in Fort Worth to include state-of-the-art manufacturing infrastructure, labs and clean room space for the production of cell-based therapies.
According to the news announcement, Healthpoint Biotherapeutics will invest $60 million to upgrade and staff the new facility, which will include hiring 51 new employees in research and development (R&D), quality assurance and quality control, operations and information technology (IT), with 31 of these hires planned for 2012.
“We are very pleased to be embarking on this important and innovative initiative at our headquarters here in Fort Worth,” said Travis E. Baugh, president and Chief Operating Officer of Healthpoint Biotherapeutics in a news release. “The planned, ultra-modern facility will create an efficient platform to support our lead pipeline candidate, HP802-247, which recently completed a successful phase 2b study in venous leg ulcers. Importantly, the facility will also add critical capabilities as we look toward the promise of regenerative medicine.”
The facility upgrade comes as the company is engaged in developing a pipeline of next generation wound care therapies based on cell and cell-matrix biology. The new facility will assist in the new product development and future commercialization, the news release states.
The project will be built out in two phases to coincide with current pipeline requirements. The first phase will include advanced tissue processing capabilities, master cell banking, production of clinical supplies for phase III trials and process development to support future manufacturing scale-up. Important features of the second, commercialization phase include automated closed system cell culturing, automated vial filling and the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology allowing efficient, robotic packaging in -80 degrees C freezers and product traceability in sealed dry ice shippers.
Construction of the new facilities is slated to begin in the second quarter, with the first phase anticipated to be operational by the end of 2012. Completion of the second phase will be timed to meet the requirements for the manufacture and ultimate commercialization of the investigational product HP802-247, following regulatory approvals.
Healthpoint Biotherapeutics already operates biologic manufacturing facilities worldwide, including its facility in Lausanne, Switzerland, which has received manufacturing authorization from the Swiss Regulatory Agency, Swissmedic, for the production of cell-based therapies–as well as a biologic manufacturing plant in Curacao.
“We are thrilled to have Healthpoint Biotherapeutics locate their state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in our great city,” said Fort Worth mayor Betsy Price in the news announcement. “This is the latest example of how life science related businesses are becoming a much bigger part of our diversified economy.”
