Landmark Bio™, a collective endeavor launched by leaders from academia, the life sciences industry, and world-renowned research hospitals to accelerate development and industrialization of next-generation genomic medicine, announced the opening of its state-of-the-art full-spectrum development and biomanufacturing facility in Watertown.
"Landmark Bio is a unique venture bringing together the best of academia, industry, and research hospitals to translate groundbreaking research into life-changing therapies," said Ran Zheng, chief executive officer of Landmark Bio.
"By fostering a strong cross-sector collaboration, we aim to solve three critical challenges in novel therapy development – capabilities, technology, and talent. We provide expertise in novel modality product design and development, innovative manufacturing technologies, in-house quality control capabilities, and best-in-class development, regulatory and supply chain management practices to enable fast to clinic with a line of sight to commercialization. We are grateful for the generous support of our founding partners, collaborating institutions and the life sciences community in Massachusetts as we push the frontiers of life sciences innovation to ultimately benefit patients," she added.
"This new state-of-the-art facility will bring together leading innovators from universities, research institutes, hospitals, and industries in the Greater Boston life science community," said Alan M. Garber, M.D., Ph.D., provost, Harvard University, Mallinckrodt Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, professor of economics in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, professor of public policy in the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and chairman of Landmark Bio's board of directors. "Landmark Bio will be a platform that enables groundbreaking ideas from our laboratories to be transformed into life-changing therapies. The work here will facilitate access to the most promising approaches to preventing and treating illness, thanks to advances in biomanufacturing technologies."
"This facility serves as a transformational development center for our talented research community to advance technologies that manufacture and distribute breakthrough therapies," said MIT Provost Cynthia Barnhart, who is a member of Landmark Bio's board of directors and the Abraham J. Siegel Professor of Management Science and professor of operations research at MIT.
"This opening for Landmark Bio celebrates the collaborative spirit established by the founding members with the purpose of accelerating access to innovative therapies for patients," said Emmanuel Ligner, Landmark Bio founding director and president and chief executive officer of Cytiva. "Landmark Bio is gathering the brightest minds across academia and industry, along with leading clinicians, to develop immediate manufacturing capabilities, and to enable innovation and research."
The 44,000 square-foot fully integrated development and manufacturing facility includes laboratory space for translational research and early development, process and analytical development and technology innovation. The biomanufacturing area is comprised of eight cleanrooms for cell therapies, genome editing, viral vector, mRNA and lipid nanoparticle production as well as fill and finish and in-house Quality Control (QC) testing.
In addition, Landmark Bio provides wraparound services such as drug development and regulatory consulting, program management and other support services. The facility currently has about 60 staff members and will grow to more than 100 people in the coming years.
"The opening of Landmark Bio's biomanufacturing facility is an important milestone for the company and Massachusetts' world-class life sciences sector," said Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy. "Landmark Bio's continued growth is another demonstration of how our Commonwealth's ecosystem of innovation and talent is positioning us at the leading edge of medical advancements."
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