Rubius Therapeutics to Acquire Manufacturing Facility in Smithfield, Rhode Island to Produce Red Cell Therapeutics

Rubius Therapeutics (NASDAQ:RUBY) has announced it has signed a purchase agreement to acquire a 135,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

As quoted in the press release:

The company plans to invest up to $95 million through 2020, and up to $155 million in total over a five-plus year period, and it expects to hire approximately 150 people to be employed at the facility, pending the progression of its planned, staged investments. The company anticipates the purchase will close in the third quarter of 2018.

“The acquisition of the Rhode Island manufacturing facility is a critical step toward making the promise of Red Cell Therapeutics a reality,” said Pablo J. Cagnoni, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Rubius. “We believe that by owning our manufacturing capabilities and controlling our supply chain we will be prepared to scale up manufacturing of clinical and potentially commercial supply of our novel therapies. In addition, we look forward to our continued partnership with Governor Raimondo and the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation as we build a sustainable high-performing team from the talent pool in the Providence region that will allow us to work towards bringing important new medicines to patients.”

The new facility will help the company scale its manufacturing process in order to produce large quantities of Red Cell Therapeutic product candidates and lentiviral vectors needed to encode biotherapeutic proteins inside or on the surface of each Red Cell Therapeutic. The facility will be customized to contain multiple manufacturing suites, which will enable Rubius to conduct its manufacturing operations in a cGMP compliant manner for clinical supply and, if approved, for the commercial supply of RCT product candidates. The first phase of the renovations is expected to be completed in approximately 24 months.

“Rubius’ investment in Rhode Island and our highly-skilled workforce is more great news for our state,” said Rhode Island Governor Gina M. Raimondo. “Creating more jobs to support a vibrant economy and ensuring opportunity for all Rhode Islanders continues to be my top priority. We are excited to welcome Rubius to Rhode Island’s growing life sciences ecosystem.”

Click here to read the full press release.