Texcell North America Builds New Laboratory Facility

Texcell—North America, part of the Texcell Group of biosafety contract research organizations (CROs), is expanding its capabilities in customized R&D cell culture, good laboratory practice viral clearance studies, and select good manufacturing practice assay capabilities for viral safety testing with the construction of a new laboratory facility in Frederick, Md. The multimillion-dollar facility, which broke ground in December 2021, will add 27,000 ft2 of laboratory and office space, which more than doubles Texcell’s current capacity. The facility is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2023, the company stated in a Jan. 7, 2022 press release.

The new facility will house eight new independent client suites designed to be flexible based on the specific needs of the project and the client. The suites will be stocked with mobile equipment, including new pure chromatography systems (ÄKTA, Cytiva) and nanofiltration units, which can be transferred from suite to suite as necessary, according to Texcell in the press release. The facility will also offer scaled-down manufacturing models and offer the ability to transfer work on specific projects to a dedicated viral clearance team.

“Viral clearance and safety testing are an integral part of the development of biologics and gene therapies. This expansion will give us the opportunity to scale up our testing capabilities to meet the rising demand for these life-saving products,” said Jeff Schubert, president of Texcell—North America, in the press release. “As the number of candidate molecules in clinical pipelines continues to grow rapidly, this additional capacity permits us to provide research support to even more [clients].”