Seattle-based biotech Sana Biotechnology Inc. (Nasdaq: SANA) broke ground on its 80,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Bothell last week.
Sana expects the facility to open in 2025, according to a company spokesperson. The Bothell facility, located at 3555 Monte Villa Parkway, allows Sana to bring manufacturing in house.
"We have long viewed an internal manufacturing capability as core to our long-term success,” Sana CEO Steve Harr said in a news release when the company announced the facility in June 2022. “This new facility enables us to continue to develop our internal manufacturing with no anticipated impact to the timing of our programs and in a more cost-effective manner."
The Bothell location replaces Sana's plans for a larger facility in Fremont, California. Sana in 2021 signed a 10-year lease for 163,193 square feet in Fremont, with options for two additional five-year terms. The company was still in the design phase for the Fremont facility when it announced the switch to Bothell. Sana last year said it expected the switch to save the company more than $100 million over three years.
The company plans to enter a sublease or terminate the lease for the Fremont facility sometime this year, Sana's spokesperson said.
Last year the company said the savings will come from lower costs to build out the Bothell site, lower operating costs, tenant allowances and other factors. Sana last year signed a 16-year lease with the option for three additional five-year terms for the Bothell facility.
Sana, launched in 2019, is focused on repairing and controlling genes in cells, and its treatments are aimed at cancer, diabetes, central nervous system diseases and sickle cell disease. Its treatment aimed at non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia is in Phase 1 trials, while its other treatments are pre-clinical.
In addition to the Seattle area, Sana has operations in South San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company went public in 2021 through a $587.5 million initial public offering.
In November, Sana said it was laying off about 15% of its staff. The biotech also stopped further investment in SC187, its program aimed at heart failure.
Sana had 421 employees at the end of last year, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
