Arranta Bio Announces Completion of Sale of Florida Site and Progress on $150M Investment Plan to Expand Development and Commercial Manufacturing Services

Arranta Bio, a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) supporting advanced therapy pioneers, announced the completion of the sale of its process development and GMP clinical manufacturing site in Gainesville, Florida, to Inceptor Bio and the transfer of client programs and key technical employees to Arranta’s Watertown, MA facility.

“We are delighted that Inceptor Bio will build on the foundation that we established in Gainesville and wish them every success in developing life-saving cell therapy products,” said Mark Bamforth, executive chair and CEO at Arranta, “and we are thrilled to continue to build and expand Arranta’s commercial-ready manufacturing team in Massachusetts, the global hub for biosciences.”

Arranta’s Watertown facility now has a team of over 160 employees focused on supporting microbiome clients, establishing messenger RNA vaccine capabilities, and manufacturing critical starting materials.

Arranta has established a strong microbiome platform including proprietary media and cryopresevative formulations to maximize yields and enhance viability for live biopharmaceutical products that clients are testing in the clinic against a range of infectious, inflammatory, neurological, and oncology diseases.

In addition, Arranta is progressing the establishment of end-to-end mRNA capabilities that were announced recently and expects to begin laboratory-scale operations in January and to have starting materials, mRNA, lipid nanoparticle formulation, and a robotic sterile fill line installed in Watertown by the end of Q2 2022.

Arranta recently received permitting approval to progress the first build-out phase of laboratory and GMP capacity establishment at a second commercial-ready site in Boxborough, MA, which will be completed by mid-2022. “With over 200,000 ft² of facilities in Watertown and Boxborough and over $150 million committed to building state-of-the-art facilities, Arranta has the capacity to respond to client needs for complex biopharmaceutical products that will change the lives of patients,”  said David Stevens, President and COO at Arranta.