Belgian pharmaceutical company UCB invests 200 million euros in a new site for gene therapy in Braine l’Alleud (Braine l’Alleud). The biopharma company announced this on Tuesday morning.
The site will cover 17,000 square meters and will create more than 100 new highly skilled jobs. The new site should be operational in 2024. Construction should start in the second quarter of this year.
The most famous example of gene therapy in our country is Zolgensma from pharmaceutical company Novartis, which helps children with the rare muscle disease SMA. In order to be able to pay for this treatment, Pia’s parents organized a benefit campaign, with which they raised the necessary 1.9 million euros. Meanwhile, Zolgensma is paid back by the government.
But there is also Libmeldy, a three million euro treatment for babies and children diagnosed with MLD. MLD is a rare, hereditary metabolic disease that affects the brain.
Gene therapy is one of the promising areas of booming pharmaceuticals in our country. “With the construction of the new gene therapy site, the Brain l’Alleud campus, together with the Leuven site, will become one of the most exciting places in Belgium for innovative people,” said Dhavel Patel, Scientific Director of UCB, in the press release†
UCB also has teams in Boston and Durham in the US working on gene therapy. The company also has offices in China, Japan, Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom. A total of 7,600 people in about 40 countries work for the company, which had a turnover of 5.8 billion euros in 2021.
In mid-January, UCB announced a multi-billion dollar acquisition in the US. With the acquisition, UCB expands its portfolio in rare disease drugs, the press release said.
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