The new analytical testing services laboratory opened by the Center for Breakthrough Medicines at the Discovery Labs complex in King of Prussia aims to address growing capacity needs for the cell and gene therapy sector of life sciences companies, writes John George for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The lab testing and analytical services business will focus on meeting the escalating need for developers of cell and gene therapies, according to the Center’s CEO Joerg Ahlgrimm. The new service line has 50 employees but it is expecting to grow that number to more than 400 over the next two years.

The testing and analytical services at the Center will take up approximately 200,000 square feet across several buildings and a safety testing laboratory within the large Discovery Labs park in King of Prussia.

The Center for Breakthrough Medicines’ new business unit was created to help accelerate drug development in the field by using advanced analytical methods and platform assays to demonstrate the “potency, purity, identity, and safety” of experimental therapy, “all required for Food and Drug Administration approval,” said Ahlgrimm.

Read more about the Center for Breakthrough Medicines in King of Prussia and the new analytical testing services laboratory in the Philadelphia Business Journal.