Andelyn Biosciences Inc. is adding a second laboratory in Dublin, and will move into its headquarters in Ohio State University's Innovation District before construction is complete.
Not quite two years old, the gene therapy manufacturing spinoff of Nationwide Children's Hospital has grown to 185 jobs – and is outgrowing temporary space spread across three separate hospital buildings.
"We've got a full list of client projects we needed to serve; that’s why we decided to expand," CEO Mayo Pujols said in an interview. "We had a sense of urgency around needing this a lot sooner."
The Dublin building, 5185 Blazer Pkwy., is new shell construction, so Andelyn can finish the interior into custom lab space by early January. Red Architects is the designer.
It's not swing space: Andelyn has a 10-year lease in Dublin, because the two facilities will serve different functions, Pujols said.
The frame and roof are done, and exterior cladding under way, on the 185,000-square-foot manufacturing facility off Lane Avenue and Carmack Road. The $200 million cost to build and equip it doubled this spring, helped by an undisclosed investment from biotech equipment maker Pall Corp.
Andelyn will start operations in part of the headquarters in July, again because of growing customer demand, Pujols said. Interior construction will continue throughout 2022, with offices finished last.
The 42,000 square feet in Dublin completes leasing of the nearly 60,000-square-foot Blazer Tech I, developed by VanTrust Real Estate LLC. The anchor is the headquarters for Pepper Construction Co., lead contractor for both the building itself and the biotech's interior.
Andelyn's broker was David Morgan of Cushman and Wakefield, while VanTrust was represented by CBRE's Brandon Ellis and Todd Greliner.
“This is VanTrust’s first tenant in the bioscience field, a dynamic growing field that we are developing ideal space to accommodate," Brice Harrison, VanTrust's manager for real estate, said a news release.
Dublin City Council approved a $10,000 equipment grant and a 20% incentive on income tax withholdings for a projected 70 new jobs over six years. That would be worth about $179,000 to the company over the life of the agreement while netting the city $715,000 in taxes.
The private, for-profit spinoff produces precisely engineered genetic material and the non-virulent viruses that deliver snippets of DNA to cells, correcting genes responsible for rare and often lethal inherited conditions. A single treatment takes trillions of viruses; something so tiny needs a building so large to house vat-like bioreactors in sterile conditions.
The field of regenerative medicine struggles with a severe production shortage. Starting with its founding client, gene therapy pioneer Children's, Andelyn has added more academic customers, plus biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Revenue and number of clients aren't disclosed.
Andelyn now is supplying clients entering final phase of clinical trials before applying for FDA approval. Larger numbers of patients at that stage mean even greater production runs.
"That was a big milestone for us," Pujols said.
The Dublin lab, in contrast, is geared for earlier stages of working with a client, such as developing materials and processes or producing small batches for toxicology studies.
"It's really the place where we do all of that bench-skill work," Pujols said.
The two sites are about a 20-minute drive apart, he said, but employees were polled and said it wouldn't affect commutes. The distinct teams would travel back and forth only infrequently.
Andelyn expects to surpass 400 employees in 2024. It was an early entrant to a growing cell and gene therapy industry cluster in Central Ohio.
Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. opened an R&D office in Dublin in 2019, and is almost ready to open its lab at Easton in Columbus.
Drive Capital-backed Forge Biologics Inc. launched in July 2020 and opened its research and production facility this summer in Grove City.
Columbus research giant Battelle spun out independent AmplifyBio LLC with a $200 million investment from the nonprofit and VC firms, transferring to the business its West Jefferson biotech lab and 125 employees.
Andelyn's ground-up construction is taking 18 months since finalizing the OSU west campus site. But it already had capacity inside Children's.
"Our need was not quite as dire as Forge's," Pujols said. "The Innovation District is long-term a better place to be for talent acquisition.
"We welcome the fact that other companies like ours are setting roots in Columbus," he said. "That is helping all of us attract talent that typically wouldn’t look at Columbus."
