Seattle’s Umoja Biopharma to open Louisville pharma plant

LOUISVILLE — Umoja Biopharma Inc., a Seattle-based developer of cancer therapies, is poised to enter Boulder County’s increasingly crowded biosciences community. 

The company plans to set up shop in a 146,000-square-foot facility in Louisville’s Colorado Technology Center.

Umoja was approved for a tax and fee rebate package this month by the Louisville City Council worth $1,325,717 over five years. At the time, the company said it was considering alternative sites in Longmont, Broomfield and Westminster. 

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“Manufacturing is a critical strategic component of Umoja’s approach to delivering the future of cancer immunotherapies, ensuring our treatments are widely accessible in a timely way and at a reasonable cost — all barriers that have long held the landscape of [Chimeric antigen receptor T cell treatments or CAR T] back,” Umoja CEO Andy Scharenberg said in a prepared statement. “Our facility in Colorado represents a significant investment into our commitment to bring novel therapies to cancer patients, as well as in how those therapies are produced, stored, and distributed. This facility will substantially enhance our company’s vector manufacturing, process development, and formulation capabilities, and we are extremely proud to announce the groundbreaking as the first step in bringing these capabilities online.”  

According to documents provided to Louisville, the company expects to complete more than $44 million in tenant improvements at the site and equipment and capital expenditures could top $70 million over five years.

The 725 Tech Court plant will house labs, offices, and manufacturing space for lentiviral vector production, Umoja said in a news release.

The first manufacturing run is expected to begin in 2023.

Umoja, founded in 2019, is developing therapeutic technologies “to reprogram immune cells in vivo to create next-generation immunotherapies for the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies,” according to a company news release.

In June, the company closed on a $210 million Series B fundraising round led by the Japanese investment giant SoftBank Group Corp.

The funding will help the company move “into clinical development, and build internal manufacturing capabilities to support preclinical and clinical development of its pipeline programs,” the release said.

Additionally, the Series B money will allow the company to add hires and facilities by “expanding its footprint to include a manufacturing operations site in Boulder,” the release said. Presumably, that’s a reference to the Louisville site.

Umoja, representatives of which did not respond to requests for comment Friday, could have as many as 100 employees earning an average of about $160,000 per year over the next five years, the Louisville business assistance package application said. 

“With this facility and Umoja’s unique, integrated approach, we are rethinking the supply chain of CAR T therapies from the ground up, eliminating costly and time-consuming steps to streamline the process and ultimately make treatments more accessible,” Umoja chief technology officer Ryan Crisman said in a release. “The experienced workforce and extensive infrastructure made Boulder County a clear choice for Umoja’s new manufacturing home. We look forward to partnering with the community to build a facility that will make a truly meaningful impact on the future of cancer treatment.”