GeminiBio celebrated the completion of its expansion and renovations of its labs, offices and warehouse in West Sacramento Thursday.
The company planned the plant expansion in April 2021 with a goal of opening it in April 2022, but pandemic supply chain delays kept it from opening for more than a year.
"We're happy to have finally completed our expansion," said GeminiBio CEO Brian Parker.
GeminiBio's expansion aligns with the city's goal of expanding the biotechnology industry and creating jobs in West Sacramento, said West Sacramento Mayor Martha Guerrero, at an event at the company's new warehouse and lab on Reed Avenue. The company also has a larger manufacturing space about a quarter mile away on Stillwater Road in West Sacramento.
The Greater Sacramento Economic Council helped GeminiBio with permitting and approvals for the expansion, said Barry Broome, CEO of GSEC.
He said there is a perception that GSEC just tries to recruit large employers to move to the region, but he stressed that one of GSEC's goals is to support expansion of existing local companies.
"We work with industry," Broome said.
Life sciences is a large employer in the region, and GSEC has a goal of bringing and building 150 more life science companies to the area in the next decade in conjunction with the Aggie Square project by the University of California Davis next to its medical center in Sacramento and at locations like GeminiBio in West Sacramento.
Founded in 1985, GeminiBio supplies other companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries with cell culture solutions and process liquids that they use to grow, kill, isolate or purify biological products. It ships products globally.
The company's niche had been in supplying cell and gene therapy products to startups, but with the larger volume now possible, GeminiBio can supply more of a growing industry, Parker said.
The expansion was planned by DGA Planning Architecture Interiors, and the construction contractor was MarketOne Builders Inc. of Sacramento.
The separation of GeminiBio's two West Sacramento locations was intentional, said Robert Perry, chief operations officer with GeminiBio. The company makes products that are animal-derived substances and serums and other products that are animal-free products. Having separate locations helps prevent cross contamination of products that must be certified and verified for pharmaceutical products.
GeminiBio employees working in the manufacturing labs wear protective clothing that has to be so uncontaminated by dust or microbes that employees aren't allowed to touch the outside of the protective gear even when getting dressed, Perry said. The protective gowns are tested to make sure they are not contaminated.
The company's processes are also beholden to the strict protocols of the pharmaceutical industry that GeminiBio sells to. That means not only do employees have to follow strict guidelines in production, but another employee has to document and verify that each step has been completed correctly, Perry said. GeminiBio routinely gets audited by its customers who check lab standards.
"We get audited all the time," Perry said.
The company previously made products in 500-liter and 1,000-liter batches. It now has a 5,000-liter and two 10,000-liter manufacturing tanks.
GeminiBio produces cell culture products for the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. One of the products that is a growing business for the company is ultrapure water, Perry said. GeminiBio starts with city water, strips out the chlorine and then strips out any other minerals and salts. The company uses that water to clean its vessels and equipment, and it sells it to other companies that use it in manufacturing processes. That water is so pure that it's corrosive to metal pipe. It will pull copper ions out of copper pipes it if is in contact with them, Perry said.
The expansion increased GeminiBio's employee count to 76 workers now, up from 50 two years ago.
Parker declined to say what the cost of the expansion was, other than it was in the many millions of dollars. He also declined to disclose the company's revenue. GeminiBio is a portfolio company of BelHealth Investment Partners, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based private equity firm focused on health care.
GeminiBio's manufacturing is split between two locations totaling 57,000 square feet. Part of the expansion included the installation of two freezers that are large enough to drive forklifts into and which can store hundreds of pallets. One of them is an 8-degree freezer and the other is minus-20-degree freezer. That colder freezer is monitored around the clock by mapping sensors that make sure every part of it is within 1 degree of temperature, Perry said.
In addition to the freezers, GeminiBio installed a temperature-control system into what had been a warehouse without air conditioning.
