Memphis-based Cognate BioServices has started 2021 with its local $212 million expansion underway.
Those plans — for 250,000 square feet of space — include building out a new manufacturing facility in a facility vacated by a Fortune 500 company in 2020 and renovating a warehouse to bolster supply chain needs.
Cognate is a contract manufacturer of cell and gene therapies.
To facilitate the expansion, the bioscience company applied for and received a 15-year, $52 million Jobs PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) in November 2020 from the Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) for Memphis and Shelby County.
“When we moved our manufacturing capabilities to Memphis in 2007, we knew immediately that this area would be vitally important to our organization. Memphis is the logistics center of the world — and with Cognate’s global reach, it would be tough to find another city to provide us with this strategic advantage for timely distribution of cell and gene therapies,” Kelly Ganjei, Cognate’s CEO, said in an emailed comment to MBJ. “We are committed to furthering our business growth in the Mid-South and look forward to solidifying Memphis as a bioscience hub.”
Cognate’s original facility at 4600 E. Shelby Drive will be part of the company’s expansion plans, with a $30 million investment in new cleanroom suites and manufacturing support areas.
Currently, Cognate employs close to 300 people in Memphis and more than 500 worldwide.
According to the EDGE summary, the expansion project will create 561 local jobs, with an average annual wage of $63,749.
The project has gotten off to a fast start, even in a pandemic.
Work is ongoing at 5780 E. Shelby Drive and is expected to be completed soon to help manage “global supply chain needs," the Thursday, Jan. 14, press release stated. That facet of the expansion project includes moving existing logistics operations into 50,000 square feet of warehouse space.
The bulk of Cognate’s local investment involves a $94 million outfitting of 6100 Global Drive, resulting in 321 net jobs by 2024. That facility was previously pharma giant AmerisourceBergen Corp.’s PharMEDium facility, which closed in early 2020.
Buildout of the 6100 Global Drive facility is expected to commence soon in 2021 with a goal of becoming operational “as quickly as possible.”
Taken together, Cognate’s expansion will almost double its manufacturing and distribution capacity in Memphis.
And, Memphis is not the only part of Cognate’s footprint to benefit from the company’s growth plans in the cell and gene therapy industry.
Its gene therapy division, Cobra Biologics, plans a four-fold increase in high-quality DNA manufacturing capacity. Cognate acquired Cobra in January 2020, and Europe-based Cobra has significant involvement in COVID vaccine development.
"Our expansion plans in cell and gene therapy, in the U.S. and Europe, and the close proximity to a global shipping and logistics hubs, provide Cognate, together with Cobra Biologics, a unique competitive advantage not available to other CDMOs [contract development and manufacturing organizations],” Ganjei, said in the release. “This is critically important to our clients around the world who are commercializing cell and gene therapies that require rapid turn around and often utilize real-time shipping and handling.”
