Bayer breaks ground on German cell and gene therapy centre
Once completed, the Berlin site will also be the new home for one of the company’s Bayer Co. Lab start-up incubators.
Construction has begun for Bayer’s new Berlin Center for Gene and Cell Therapies (BC GCT), with the German pharma company planning to have it up and running by 2028.
The project will focus on translational research in cell and gene therapy (CGT), but the Berlin facility also has the wider aim of creating a biotech ecosystem to help start-ups bring novel therapeutic approaches into clinical development.
To that end the 20,000 square metre space at Nordhafen will house the BC GCT as well as the Berlin version of Bayer‘s start-up incubator Bayer Co.Lab, relocating the latter from its current base in the city on Bayer Pharmaceuticals’ global HQ campus.
Stefan Oelrich, member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG and Head of the company’s Pharmaceuticals Division, said: “The groundbreaking ceremony… is a signal that Germany wants to play a leading role in the key technologies of the 21st century as an innovation and industrial location.
“Our goal is for startups ‘Made in Germany’ to grow locally and for globally successful therapy options to continue to be developed in Germany.”
Bayer launched the Center last year alongside Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, subsequently adding the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) as an additional partner, with both present at the groundbreaking ceremony in Berlin-Mitte.
Prof. Heyo Kroemer, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Charité university hospital, said: “With gene and cell therapies, we are pushing the boundaries of what is medically possible. By bringing together both research and production of these highly innovative drugs under one roof, the Berlin Center for Gene and Cell Therapies shortens the path from the experimental stage to application.”
The BC GCT will in time combine an incubator and fully equipped laboratory and office space, with room for 15 to 20 start-ups at various stages of development. It will also house a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certified CGT production facility to be run by the Berlin-based contract drug manufacturing organisation (CDMO) ProBioGen.
