Viralgen inaugurated its new headquarters in the Miramon Park at the end of last month. The inauguration was attended by Iñigo Urkullu and Pedro Duque as public representatives, Javier García as CEO of Viralgen, and Stefan Oelrich as representative of Bayer Pharmacuticals who acquired AskBio, owner of Viralgen. With these new facilities, they aim to better meet the ever-growing demand of the AAV (adeno-associated viral vectors) industry.
Viralgen opened its first facility in 2018. Since then it has been supplying the global gene therapy market by manufacturing AAVs, being the only company in Spain. Now, with the new building they have just inaugurated, they aim to increase their capacity fivefold, as well as to cover all phases of the projects: from the pre-clinical phase to commercial production.
The new facilities, which are located in the Miramon Technology Park (Donostia), will create 130 new jobs.
The expansion, which has required an investment of more than 70 million euros, will cost up to 120 million euros to get it up and running. As the equipment still needs to be validated and the facilities certified, the first batches are expected to be launched on the market in mid-2022. The expansion has been designed according to sustainability standards in terms of energy use, waste management and water consumption.
The company’s CEO, Javier García, wanted to emphasise the support received not only from the Donostia City Council but also from the Gipuzkoa Provincial Government and the Basque Government to carry out these facilities. He also stressed that with this expansion they intend to position themselves as world leaders in CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization) in the field of gene therapies.
