AstraZeneca takes loss on Longmont facility sale

LONGMONT — Swiss biologics firm AveXis, a Novartis company, snagged AstraZeneca’s Longmont campus earlier this week for $30 million, Boulder County public records show. AstraZeneca LP, which closed up shop there three months ago, sold the six-building, 692,000-square-foot property at 4000 Nelson Road less than three years after buying it in 2016 for $64.5 million.

AstraZeneca also closed its Boulder facility this year. That property was purchased from Amgen in 2015 for $14.6 million. It is unclear whether AveXis has its sights set on purchasing the Boulder property, although a spokeswoman for AveXis’s public relations firm said today that “right now, they’re just focused on getting the Longmont facility up and running.”

AveXis operates a manufacturing facility in Illinois, is building a facility in North Carolina scheduled to be operational in 2020 and is expanding its product-development capacity at its San Diego facility.

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The Longmont campus includes space for biologic drug manufacturing, offices, laboratories, warehousing and utilities. Initial startup activities in Longmont will include preparing the facility for scaling, manufacturing and testing of gene therapies and hiring staff.

The facility will enable AveXis to expand its production capacity as it prepares to launch Zolgensma, an investigational gene therapy awaiting global regulatory approvals for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy Type 1 and for future gene-therapy treatments in development.

The company has seen rapid growth in its four years of existence.

“The core of our growth stems from the culture at AveXis, which is driven by our commitment to patients,” said Andrew Knudten, senior vice president and chief technical officer for AveXis. “From a manufacturing perspective that has manifested in our ability to attract and retain incredible talent, which has enabled us to develop cutting-edge facilities, hone our process and move at an incredible pace. Of course it’s also due to our remarkable pivotal Phase 1 data, which led to simultaneous regulatory filings of Zolgensma in three major markets, including the U.S., the European Union and Japan, with approvals expected this year.”