Main Line developer Brian O’Neill is planning to build a $1.1 billion cell and gene therapy manufacturing facility as part of the Discovery Labs complex in King of Prussia, writes Katie Park for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Center for Breakthrough Medicines will claim 680,000 square feet of the 1.6 million-square-foot, biotechnology, health-care, and life sciences office complex.

The goal of the new facility is to pursue cures for various diseases in cooperation with scientists, pharmaceutical companies, and academic and governmental institutions.

The center is being co-founded by O’Neill and health-care investment management firm Deerfield Management.

“Today, brilliant scientists are advancing an unprecedented number of gene and cell therapy drug candidates,” said Alex Karnal, Deerfield’s partner and managing director and a Discovery Labs board member. “The real tragedy, however, is a scarcity of manufacturing know-how, which is complex and expensive.”

The Center for Breakthrough Medicines will serve to remedy this shortfall in the cell and gene manufacturing as well as deal with the dearth of products approved by the FDA.

Read more about the planned development at The Philadelphia Inquirer by clicking here.

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