Kite Announces Plans to Bolster Industry-Leading Cell Therapy Manufacturing Capabilities With New Viral Vector Facility

Kite, a Gilead Company (Nasdaq: GILD), announced plans for a new 67,000-square-foot facility in Oceanside, California, dedicated to the development and manufacturing of viral vectors, a critical starting material in the production of cell therapies. The new site builds on Kite’s existing state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities to deliver innovative cell therapies for people with cancer, including Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), Kite’s first commercially available chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy, and investigational T cell receptor (TCR) and tumor neoantigen targeting cell therapies being evaluated in solid tumors.

“The new viral vector facility in Oceanside is an example of our continued investment in achieving technical advances that will help meet the needs of people living with cancer today and in the future,” said Tim Moore, Executive Vice President of Technical Operations at Kite. “Viral vectors are one of the key components in cell therapy production, however, the industry’s current development and manufacturing capabilities are not widely established and supply is limited. By pursuing our own viral vector facility, we will be able to advance viral vector development and supply to allow for accelerated process development of current CAR T and future pipeline therapies, while continuing to partner with external suppliers.”

Kite’s facility will be constructed within an existing Gilead biologics operations facility in Oceanside and will become part of Kite’s growing commercial manufacturing network that includes sites in California, Maryland and the Netherlands.