N.C. lands another gene therapy expansion in Durham. This one will create 200 jobs.
Yet another gene therapy company is adding jobs in Durham.
On Thursday, the N.C. Commerce Department said that Adverum Biotechnologies, a California-based company, will add 200 jobs in Durham.
The state is giving the company an incentive package worth $3 million, which will be paid to the company if it meets hiring and investment goals in Durham. The county is expected to add $700,000 in incentives as well.
Adverum will create the jobs by 2025. The average wage is expected to be around $94,000.
Adverum joins a growing roster of gene therapy companies operating in the Triangle. The state has focused a lot of its recruitment in recent years on companies in the industry.
Less than a month ago, the state recruited a different 200-job expansion to the area, when it gave Taysha Gene Therapies a $5 million incentive.
The state had several homegrown gene therapy wins last year as well. Most notably, Durham-based AskBio, founded by a UNC professor, was sold to Bayer in a deal worth up to $4 billion, and another firm, Atsena Therapeutics, raised $55 million from investors.
Gene therapy is one of the most promising forms of treatment for diseases like cancer and some inherited disorders. It’s still relatively new, though, with fewer than two dozen gene therapies being approved so far by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The state has had success getting companies to pick the Triangle as their manufacturing hub thanks to the region’s wealth of talent in the field.
Companies like AveXis, Bluebird Bio and Pfizer all have gene-therapy-manufacturing operations in the Triangle now.
“Our state’s dynamic workforce continues to propel life-changing innovation and keeps North Carolina at the forefront of biomanufacturing through life sciences companies like Adverum,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement.
Adverum, which is publicly-traded, has several treatments in clinical trials. Two of its treatments target age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema, ocular diseases that affect millions around the globe.
Adverum said it will invest around $80 million into the new manufacturing facility in Durham.
Competition for the jobs was California and Massachusetts. The Boston area in particular has been a frequent competitor for gene therapy jobs.
“Today’s announcement culminates a robust site selection process to determine the best fit for our future GMP commercial manufacturing needs,” Adverum’s CEO Laurent Fischer said in a statement. “With its reputation as a strong viral vector manufacturing hub, North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park offers a highly skilled and diverse workforce crucial for advancing our novel and transformative gene therapy.”
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 January 7, 2021 at 2:56 PM with the headline "N.C. lands another gene therapy expansion in Durham. This one will create 200 jobs.."
