April 28, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
NORTON, Mass. – In preparation for its bold plan to become a multi-product company by 2020, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals broke ground on its new $200 million, 200,000 square-foot manufacturing facility on a 12-acre site here Thursday morning.
The new site is expected to manufacture Alnylam’s RNAi-based therapeutics for clinical trials, as well as drugs for commercialization when the company ushers its first product to market. Barry Greene, president of Alnylam’s new Norton site, told BioSpace that he anticipates the site to become operational in 2018.
Alnylam, which has been blazing a trail in the use of RNAi therapies for the treatment of various diseases, announced plans for the new site earlier this year. In an exclusive interview with BioSpace, Greene said the company conducted a global search for a site to build its new facility and finally settled on Norton, about 40 miles from its corporate headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. That proximity to its headquarters will benefit operational costs by allowing members of the leadership team to quickly move back and forth between the two facilities without much work interruption, something that could not happen if the manufacturing site were located in another state or country. In addition, staying in Massachusetts keeps the company centralized around the Cambridge area, which is a booming hub of scientific activity and provides the company with access to the technologies being developed as well as venture capital and talent to fill available spots.
Local leaders in Norton were also instrumental in site selection and helped provide economic development incentives, which is to be expected in large construction projects will bring about 150 jobs to the community.
Alnylam is using its RNAi therapeutics to develop treatments for multiple illnesses, including TTR, hemophilia and other bleeding disorders, hepatic porphyrias, beta thalassemia, hypertension, as well as liver infections.
Alnylam’s new site is being built with the end goal of drug development in mind. During the groundbreaking ceremony Thursday the company allowed patients who will benefit from Alnylam’s RNAi therapeutics to talk about the importance of the drugs being developed by the company. Christine Lindenboom, Alnylam’s vice president of investor relations and communications, said having patients speak during the groundbreaking ceremony was important for the company as it served to ground them for their mission to develop new drugs.
While the company still intends to leverage third-party manufacturers, Greene said it is important for Alnylam to have its own manufacturing facilities to make its own drugs for clinical trials to establish a strategic supply chain within their manufacturing network. The first of those clinical trial-designated drug candidates are expected to roll out of the new Norton facility in 2018 to meet the company’s goal of having multiple commercially approved products by 2020. Greene said Alnylam’s goal is to have at least three commercial products by 2020, 10 in the clinical pipeline and more in developmental phases. Alnylam currently has two drug candidates in Phase III trials.
Before breaking ground, Alnylam’s leaders spent time with manufacturing firms with expertise in drug manufacturing to map out the building plan around the machines they use in their manufacturing process in order to build it to the company’s specifications. With developing RNAi therapies, Greene said the machinery they require is more akin to those used in the manufacturing of small molecules, rather than biologics. For the layman, Greene said the Norton site could be thought on in terms like a chemical plant.
As the facility moves closer to developing its drugs, Greene said some of the new hires brought on to lead various areas in the facility will be able to add their input into the design of the interior. While that might seem a radical move to seek advice from employees to make sure the design is functional, Greene said that is an “emerging best practice.” Greene said he anticipates those leaders will be hired this year, with the remaining 150 or so employees to be hired next year.
It will take between nine and 12 months for the building shell to be erected with the interior to be completed by 2018. However, he said as soon as possible, some work will be done by Alnylam employees on site as the building nears completion.
Greene pointed out that the new structure will be a manufacturing facility, but one that is considerate of its environmental footprint. The construction will include several green initiatives such as using recycled water.
“This building will allow us to speed up the manufacturing process of our drugs, but we’re being good to the environment. We’re trying to be good stewards of the environment,” Greene said.
In addition to the new Norton site, Alnylam also leased an additional 100,000 square feet in Kendall Square, with plans to expand its headquarters by 2019. Greene said these expansions, in addition to their plans for three commercial products in the next four years, are behind the company’s explosive growth. Employment at Alnylam is expected to rapidly expand over the next four years, going from about 400 employees now to nearly 1,800, Greene said.
