Bristol-Myers sells clinical manufacturing facility to Seattle Genetics

Bristol-Myers Squibb is unloading a clinical materials manufacturing facility and labs in Washington to Seattle Genetics, which has agreed to keep on the workers employed there.

Seattle Genetics in an SEC filing said it had put $17.8 million down last week for the 51,000-square-foot manufacturing and laboratory space and will pay another $25.5 million upon closing. The facility, which was built in 2014, is in Bothell, Washington, where Seattle Genetics is headquartered.

Seattle Genetics, a specialist in antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) based cancer meds, said in a release that it intends to use the facility for antibody production for its pipeline programs. But under the deal, it also has agreed to manufacture certain clinical product candidates for BMS through the end of 2018. Seattle Genetics said it intends to offer jobs to the manufacturing facility’s 72 employees.

"This turnkey manufacturing facility provides the capability, capacity and skilled workforce needed to support our expanding antibody-drug conjugate and immuno-oncology pipeline, and complements our existing outsourced manufacturing model," Vaughn Himes, the company’s chief technical officer, said in a statement.

A BMS spokesperson said today in an email that Seattle Genetics had wanted the facility for some time and that BMS "continually assesses our operations in order to optimize our productive development and manufacturing network and evolve it in line with our portfolio."

In June, Bristol-Myers agreed to sell an API plant in Swords, Ireland, to South Korea's SK Biotek for an undisclosed amount. SK took on about 300 workers and will continue to supply BMS with the products the company made there.