Bothell-based biotech Seagen Inc. (Nasdaq: SGEN) is building a 270,000-square-foot biomanufacturing facility in Everett.
The new facility, which Seagen announced Wednesday, is expected to open in 2024 and employ up to 200 workers. The new facility is at 215 Shuksan Way and construction has already started, according to a Seagen spokesperson.
“In cancer research and development, Seagen must continue to be agile and flexible, especially in manufacturing, to advance our promising pipeline of medicines for people living with cancer and bring these medicines to patients as fast as possible,” Clay Siegall, president and CEO of Seagen, said in a news release. “This new biomanufacturing facility is another way we are growing and expanding operations while also positioning ourselves to attract top-flight talent to drive our business priorities.”
Seagen called the facility a "greenfield" project, meaning the facility is being built from the start to be a medical production facility. The Everett building will add to the 51,000-square-foot manufacturing facility Seagen bought in Bothell from Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2017.
Siegall in 2020 told the Business Journal the company was looking to build a $300 million manufacturing facility. Those plans were right after Seagen inked a deal with the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. that infused $1.8 billion into Seagen, and could eventually be worth nearly $4.4 billion.
“We do a lot of our manufacturing by contracting, and we think it could be very efficient and cost effective to do it ourselves,” Siegall said at the time. “We’re looking for the right place — places that have a lot of potential staff that we can recruit. … We need to have a place where there’s talent and where there’s good economic environment and good state support.”
Seagen, previously called Seattle Genetics, focuses on cancer medicines. The company currently has four drugs on the market, aimed at treating Hodgkin lymphoma, bladder, breast and cervical cancer. According to Seagen, the company employs over 2,800 people globally and over 1,600 people in the Pacific Northwest.
