The official opening of bluebird bio’s state-of-the-art, 125,000-square-foot gene and cell therapy manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina will strengthen its capabilities to manufacture products for clinical development and commercial supply for the treatment of certain cancers and sickle cell disease. bluebird bio marked the occasion with a ribbon cutting on March 22, 2019. Gov. Roy Cooper, Secretary of Commerce Tony Copeland, BE&K Building Group representatives, and local patient advocates attended the ceremony.
North Carolina is proud to bring bluebird bio’s cutting-edge work to Durham. bluebird is developing treatments for devastating diseases that could change the course of medicine. And, with the Triangle’s highly-skilled workforce, it will continue to be a leader in the biotech field.
— Gov. Roy Cooper
Chief bluebird Nick Leschly said: “At bluebird bio, we view every aspect of our path to helping patients as both a privilege and a responsibility. This includes the expertise that we’ve poured into the construction and operation of our manufacturing facility, because it is a crucial step toward our mission of bringing a new generation of treatments to people living with severe genetic diseases and cancer. Our teams in North Carolina and across the globe are working to deliver treatments that will make a big difference for a lot of patients and families. This is what drives our ambition to bring four gene therapies forward in the next few years.”
BE&K Building Group provided construction services for the interior upfit of the cGMP biomanufacturing facility. This upfit transformed a two-story shell building into a state-of-the-art office, laboratory, and manufacturing space. The first floor houses 15,000 square feet of quality control laboratories and 38,000 square feet of cleanroom manufacturing spaces. Corridors provide an ISO-8 (Grade D) classification and with an ISO-7 (Grade C) classification in all production suites. Labs are BSL-2 level. The second floor provides 25,000 square feet for office and administration space. In addition to the open office layout, a large training and meeting room, collaboration spaces, conference rooms, and break area complete the space. Additional facility components include maintenance and metrology, cold storage, shipping and receiving, and a utility/mechanical room and yard.