Kannapolis pharma startup Genixus is wrapping up construction on its 30,000-square-foot production and distribution facility in Concord. The building is about 90% complete with a few final touches left for its office, manufacturing line and warehouse spaces. Genixus is targeting a late July completion for the facility located at 4715 Corporate Drive in Concord.
Kannapolis-based Genixus, founded in 2019, manufactures ready-to-administer syringes for medical staff to use in diverse hospital settings. The Concord facility is an expansion of its manufacturing operations to help meet the growing demand of its first product, ready-to-administer KinetiX RTA Propofol syringes. Propofol is a general anesthesia used in major surgery. The syringes launched in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Its existing 4,500-square-foot headquarters is in the main building at the David H. Murdock Research Institute in Kannapolis. Manufacturing of the propofol syringes originally started there; that operation will move to the Concord building. The additional space includes formulation rooms for filling, inspection and packing, as well as quality control labs, isolators and automated syringe production.
To complement the increased production space, Genixus also expects to triple its staff by the second quarter of 2024. The startup had a dozen employees at the beginning of 2022 and now has just over 40, said Kendall Foster, CEO and co-founder at Genixus. The Concord space may serve as its team's main hub in the near future, Foster said. "The bulk of the employees will be in Concord. We have a lot more office space here, so we'd like for them to move here. Over time, we will likely move everything to Concord."
He says Genixus is looking to fill several positions, primarily manufacturing technicians and quality associates. The company is also looking to hire a pharma project manager and a regional vice president, according to its website.
In addition to its Propofol syringe, Genixus has six other products in the development stage, Foster said. Its looking to launch two of those pharma products, rocuronium and phenylephrine, in the first quarter of next year. Rocuronium produces muscle relaxation to help facilitate surgery, and phenylephrine is used as a anesthetic vasopressor.
Foster said the Concord facility serves as a dedicated space to produce the Propofol syringe, so Genixus is eyeing building a second warehouse for its other products in development.
Genixus is also currently working on its next fundraise. The startup is looking to close on funding ranging from $20 million to $80 million by the third quarter, he said. It will be used to scale up its operations in Concord. In January 2022, the company closed on $20 million in funding to bolster the development and commercialization of its product line.
Genixus is working to completely remove the prep work hospitals oversee for injectable medicine given to patients. The startup ultimately hopes that will help eliminate manipulation, dilution and any chances for mistakes when issuing the medicine. "Our fundamental mission is to make medicine as simple as possible for healthcare workers," Foster said. "Their job is stressful enough, and our goal is to make the medicine that they use simple as possible."
