Biopharmaceutical company Kite Pharma will expand its footprint in Frederick County with a new warehouse that will bring 100 new jobs to the area, the company announced Tuesday.
Kite, a Los Angeles-based subsidiary of Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD), will build an approximately 70,000-square-foot raw materials warehouse to support its global cell therapy manufacturing network. The company’s CAR T-cell therapy uses a person’s own immune system to recognize, attack and destroy certain types of cancer with a one-time, individualized treatment.
The centralized warehouse will be located adjacent to Kite’s existing facility in the Urbana Corporate Center, near the interchange of I-270 and Maryland Route 80. When the expansion is complete, the company expects to employ more than 500 full-time staff across both sites by the end of 2026. Construction is expected to begin this year.
Kite has had a presence in Frederick County since 2019 when it announced plans to build a new biologics facility to manufacture innovative cell therapies for people with cancer. The company also has facilities in California and the Netherlands.
The biopharma’s new facility is designed to centralize the storage and testing of raw materials by bringing that work in-house, ultimately helping to streamline manufacturing processes and better meet growing patient demand.
“By locating these global operations in Maryland, we can serve both our European and California manufacturing operations in the same day,” Chris McDonald, senior vice president and global head of technical operations, said in a statement. “With three major airports in the area, we have increased flexibility in receiving and shipping materials, which is critical for patients who are waiting for our therapies.“
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