AGC Biologics investing millions to add capabilities at Longmont plant

LONGMONT — As part of a $30 million investment in improvements at its Longmont manufacturing facility, AGC Biologics Inc. is adding viral vector suspension technology and gene-therapy production capabilities at the site. 

The Longmont plant, which AGC bought in 2021 as part of a major push into the Boulder County market soon after buying a similar facility in Boulder, has traditionally had adherent viral vector capabilities and the ability to manufacture cell therapies. 

The added capabilities, expected to come online around the third quarter of this year,  diversify the Longmont plant’s offering and “provide an in-depth variety of end-to-end cell and gene therapy services at this site,” AGC said in a news release. 

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In pharmaceutical production, there are two techniques drug makers use to grow and cultivate cells: adherent and suspension. 

The Longmont facility can already perform adherent viral vector capabilities, which involves growing cells that attach — or adhere — to a separate substrate. These techniques, while more common, are typically seen as less sophisticated and less expensive than viral vector suspension, which involves the growth of cells floating freely in a culture medium.

“The suspension expansion helps us offer the most impactful, efficient and scalable technologies for bringing viral vector-based gene therapy products to market,” AGC Biologics Longmont general manager Tony Fraij said in a prepared statement. “This latest investment helps us round out the services we offer at this campus. Now, with a full suite of capabilities and the extensive expertise of our scientists, we can support virtually any type of viral vector or cell therapy development and manufacturing project.” 

AGC Biologics is headquartered in Bothell, Washington. It also has facilities in Copenhagen, Denmark; Heidelberg, Germany; Milan, Italy and Ichihara City, Japan. 

It bought the Longmont campus at 4000 Nelson Road, which has 622,000 square feet of operations and office space within six buildings on 229 acres, from Swiss biologics firm AveXis, a Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) subsidiary company in early 2021 for $36 million.

Fraij, whose resume includes work with the site’s former occupant AxeXis and Sandoz Inc., which shuttered its massive Broomfield bioscience facility about three years ago, was brought on to lead the Longmont operation. 

Meanwhile, AGC has also been beefing up its presence in the biosciences hotspot of Boulder. 

AstraZeneca inked a deal in late 2019 to sell its pharmaceutical plant at  5550 Airport Blvd. to  AGC Biologics, and the company moved in the following year. 

In February 2020, the Colorado Economic Development Commission approved a series of tax incentives to help AGC take over the facility.

The state approved $6,404,990 in performance-based job growth incentive tax credits over an eight-year period and $75,000 in performance-based strategic fund cash incentives over a five-year period. In return, AGC pledged to create 280 new jobs that pay an average annual wage of $96,253. 

Overall, the firm told state officials that its local investment would total about $100 million.

AGC quickly outgrew the 178,000-square-foot Airport Boulevard space and last year began planning a more than 126,000-square-foot expansion to its Boulder manufacturing facility.

In early 2022, industry veteran Regina Choi-Rivera, who previously held leadership roles with Samsung Biologics Co. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, was hired to serve as general manager of AGC’s Boulder operation.