Cell therapy company picks Durham for 200 jobs, after securing incentive from NC
CARsgen Therapeutics Corp., a Chinese biotechnology startup that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors, has picked Durham as the home for its first manufacturing site.
The project will eventually be home to at least 200 workers, and CARsgen plans to invest $157 million into the site.
The selection comes after the state’s Economic Investment Committee approved a $1.6 million incentive package for the company Thursday. The incentive, valued at around $8,000 per job, will only be paid out if the company meets hiring and investment milestones.
However, the North Carolina Community College System is adding training support worth $460,000, and Durham County and the City of Durham will add $1.3 million in incentives to the project, making the total size of the company’s award worth around $3.4 million, or around $17,000 per job.
The incentive will be paid out over a 12-year period starting in 2022.
CARsgen makes chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies, a therapy that tweaks a patient’s cells to have a stronger immune response against diseases.
The company’s therapies are currently in clinical trials, including one for the cancer, multiple myeloma. CARsgen currently has a small clinical operation in Houston.
The manufacturing site would include two different facilities, according to the state’s Commerce Department. The first facility will be a 35,000-square-foot building that will house a clinical laboratory for research and developing cell therapies. The second facility, which will be 100,000 square feet in size, will handle manufacturing.
Competition for the project came mainly from a site in Maryland, according to Commerce. Maryland was willing to pony up an incentive package worth $5 million, Commerce said.
CARsgen has raised a lot of money from investors, including a $186 million round completed last November.
Gov. Roy Cooper, in a statement, called CARsgen’s expansion another positive sign for the Triangle’s workforce.
“Global companies know that North Carolina is a world-class leader in biotechnology,” Cooper said. “Our state’s skilled workers, educational institutions and business environment provide life science companies with the tools they need to succeed.”
Salaries for the new jobs will vary, but they will have an average wage of $76,061 per year. That is just north of Durham County’s current average wage of $75,892, according to the state’s Commerce Department.
“We are very excited to receive the JDIG grant approval from the State of North Carolina,” CARsgen’s CEO Dr. Zonghai Li said in a statement. “CARsgen will continuously develop and embed innovations to advance the revolutionary CAR-T cell therapy for unmet clinical needs. ... The new facilities will expand our global cGMP manufacturing capacity to produce the innovative CAR-T cell products for the U.S. patients.”
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate.
This story was originally published May 20, 2021 at 2:54 PM.
