The Dublin-based pharmaceutical R&D firm APC Ltd has launched a ‘Global Centre of Excellence for Vaccine and Advanced Therapeutic Research and Manufacturing.’
The result of a €25 million investment, the new facility will staff 120 new employees.
The facility will have the capacity to produce hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines (including for COVID-19) and other therapeutic products annually.
The new plant will link to supply chains in the U.S. and Europe. Approximately half of APC’s customers are based in the U.S. APC also owns an office in Boston. The trial involves some 400 patients. The protein-based vaccine uses a synthetic version of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
APC is currently partnering with the Australian company Vaxine (Adelaide), which has a Phase 2 trial underway in Iran for a COVID-19 vaccine. Vaxine is a spin-off of Australia’s National Health Sciences Center.
APC’s ‘Global Centre of Excellence for Advanced Therapeutic and Vaccine Research and Manufacture’ will also draw support from Enterprise Ireland, the Irish government agency charged with driving the growth of Irish enterprises in global markets. In particular, Enterprise Ireland will support accelerated process development of vaccine candidates and other drug development at the new research facility. Enterprise Ireland will also offer strategic funding for VLE Therapeutics, a sister company of APC, to support the manufacturing of therapeutics and vaccines.
Some €8 million of APC’s total €25 million investment will cover the construction of an additional 12,000 sq ft laboratory and a 60,000 sq ft headquarters. The company expects the facilities to be operational by the end of June 2021.
The remaining $17 million will go to VLE Therapeutics to manufacture vaccines and advanced therapeutics, including cell and gene therapies.