Dendreon Corp. a pharmaceutical company focused on developing cancer treatments, has announced plans to open a $70 million manufacturing plant near Atlanta. The 160,000 square-foot facility could bring at least 300 jobs to Georgia.
The announcement ends nearly a month of speculation surrounding the Seattle-based company. The Atlanta Business Journal originally reported the story on July 17, although Dendreon was not named in the article. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Dendreon signed the lease on July 31. The new plant will be located at the Majestic Center in Union City, Ga. The lease starts in the first half of 2010 and will last for 10 and a half years.
Dendreon plans to manufacture their prostate cancer drug Provenge at the new facility. Provenge is the first personalized prostate cancer drug, using the patient’s own white blood cells to fight the disease. It is designed to treat patients who do not respond to hormone therapy. The drug has been shown to extend the lives of prostate cancer patients by 20 percent, OneMedPlace reported in April.
It is hoped that the new facility will boost Georgia’s biotech industry. The state already boasts such companies as Agilent Technologies, AtheroGenics, Theragenics Corporation, Inhibitex, and Becton Dickinson. Atlanta is also home to the BIO International Convention, the world’s largest biotechnology event.
Related video: Dr. David Penson, M.D., University of Southern California, discusses the results of Dendreon’s Provenge study.
