April 20, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Atara Biotherapeutics secured a 90,000-square-foot building to expand the company’s cellular therapy manufacturing facilities.
Atara leased the space for 15 years from Irvine, Calif.-based SARES•REGIS Group (SRG). The facility is part of SRG’s 507,878-square-foot development. The building Atara acquired is the second largest in the complex. Atara has an option to extend the lease for two renewal terms, presumably 15 years each, although that was not specified.
“We are excited to be working with SRG on this project. Along with housing our southern California staff, we plan to build out a multi-product cellular therapy manufacturing facility with operations expected to commence in 2018,” Jeff Masten, vice president of technical operations at Atara Bio, said in a statement.
Atara is developing a cellular therapy platform with an initial focus on allogeneic T-cell therapies for cancer, autoimmune and infectious disease. The technology selectively enhance a T-cell’s ability to target specific viral proteins implicated in disease. Atara is using its next generation allogeneic T-cell technology to target multiple sclerosis in initial clinical investigations. The company’s initial clinical stage T-cell product candidates include ATA129, its Epstein-Barr virus targeted Cytotoxic T-cells (EBV-CTL); ATA230, the company’s cytomegalovirus targeted cytotoxic T-cells (CMV-CTL); and ATA520, Atara’s Wilms Tumor 1 targeted Cytotoxic T-cells (WT1-CTL), according to company data.
In December, Atara and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration agreed upon a design for two Phase III trials for ATA129 in the treatment of rituximab-refractory EBV-Associated Post Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorder (EBV-PTLD) after hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) or solid organ transplant (SOT). Atara’s ATA 129 uses a technology in which T-cells are collected from the blood of third-party donors and then exposed to EBV antigens. Those cells are then used in patients to find ells expressing EBV and kill them. ATA129 received breakthrough therapy designation.
SRG’s complex is scheduled to be completed later this year. The development is on 29 acres in the landmark business park in the Conejo Valley, which is part of the 170-million-square-foot north Los Angeles market. The area is located near a number of universities, including Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, Pepperdine University in Malibu, University of California at Santa Barbara and California State University campuses in Northridge and Channel Islands.
The buildings in the complex are described as ideal for warehousing and logistics. The buildings will have secured yards, 28-foot to 30-foot interior clear heights, dock-high loading doors, ESFR sprinkler systems and high-image office space. The current vacancy rate is less than 1 percent, according to Colliers International, which is marketing the project.
