NC-based Heat Biologics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies to modulate the immune system, hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the launch of its new San Antonio biomanufacturing/bioanalytic facility. The company also announced it has received approval for an estimated $1.0 million in tax abatements from the City of San Antonio and Bexar County.
The company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Scorpion Biological Services, plans to build a large molecule bioanalytical research and manufacturing facility in San Antonio. Anticipated activities include the development of in-house immuno-assays and biomarkers, a Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and Good Clinical Practice (GCP) laboratory, and cGMP manufacturing capabilities.
“We appreciate the tremendous support from the San Antonio community as we expand our biomanufacturing and bioanalytic capabilities,” said Jeff Wolf, CEO of Heat Biologics.” We expect this facility to shorten our development and manufacturing timelines and reduce costs for these services which we would have otherwise outsourced to third-party contractors. “In addition to supporting our own internal operations, we plan to leverage these capabilities to support other biopharma companies.”
Heat’s gp96 platform is designed to activate immune responses against cancer or infectious diseases. The company has multiple product candidates in development leveraging the gp96 platform, including HS-110, which has completed enrollment in its Phase II trial for non-small cell lung cancer, various infectious disease programs in preclinical development, and a pipeline of proprietary immunomodulatory antibodies and cell-based therapies, including PTX-35 as a cancer immunotherapy and HS-130 as a potential therapy against solid tumors in Phase I clinical trials.
