Taysha Gene Therapies Cancels Plans for Durham Manufacturing Expansion
By Alex Keown
April 28, 2023
Taysha Gene Therapies’ plans for a manufacturing site in Research Triangle Park employing approximately 200 people has been nixed.
In its quarterly financial earnings call, Taysha’s Chief Financial Officer Kamran Alam noted the company is “in the process of actively looking for buyers” for its North Carolina manufacturing facility. Alam did not elaborate on the company’s decision to sell the property, only noting that last year the company “recorded a $36.4 million non-cash, non-recurring impairment charge” related to the site, according to a transcript of the call. The company’s announcement about the sale was first reported by the Triangle Business Journal.
Signs of uncertainty about Taysha’s North Carolina expansion plans, first announced in 2020, have been evident for a while. In March 2022, the company culled 35% of its employees as it narrowed its clinical program focus on gene therapies for Rett Syndrome and giant axonal neuropathy (GAN).
Months after the layoffs, the company reported its funding was not sufficient enough to support its ongoing R&D programs, as well as the expansion of its manufacturing capabilities. However, in October 2022, Japanese pharma giant Astellas, which opened its own gene therapy manufacturing center in North Carolina in June 2022, secured a 15% stake in Taysha Gene Therapies with a $50 million investment.
Still, that funding was not enough to support Taysha’s N.C. expansion plans. Earlier this year the company ended the proposed economic development agreement with the state. In January 2023, WRALTechWire reported the N.C. Department of Commerce’s Economic Investment Committee unanimously agreed to terminate the agreement, which was valued at $5 million.
In 2020, Texas-based Taysha Gene Therapies, which is developing AAV-based gene therapies for the treatment of monogenic diseases of the central nervous system, announced plans to build a 150,000-square-foot gene therapy manufacturing facility in Durham County. The site was expected to employ approximately 200 people and be operational by the end of this year.
At the time, Taysha Gene Therapies elected to invest $75 million in the Tar Heel State. The Durham site was expected to support preclinical, clinical and commercial production of Taysha’s gene therapy pipeline. Taysha said the addition of the Durham facility would bolster its capacities from existing manufacturing collaborations with UT Southwestern’s Gene Therapy Program and Catalent.
The woes for Taysha may not be over any time soon. Earlier this year, the company’s GAN-aimed gene therapy hit a speed bump after the FDA asked the company to dose more patients in a placebo-controlled trial in order to support a potential Biologics License Application.
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Alex Keown is a freelance journalist who writes about a variety of subjects including the pharma, biotech, and life science industries. Prior to freelancing, Alex has served as a staff writer and editor for several publications.
