Manchester inventor Dean Kamen announced on Friday the culmination of his effort to transform greater Manchester into a hub for regenerative medicine – Millyard space dedicated to the actual manufacture of cell-based body repair products and, eventually, body parts.
Funded from a portion of a $44 million federal economic development grant, the Advanced Biomanufacturing Facility and Workforce Development Training Center will comprise 80,000 square feet in the sprawling mill building at 150 Dow St. in Manchester.
Manchester inventor-entrepreneur Dean Kamen wields a sledge hammer during a ceremonial groundbreaking at the ARMI headquarters in the Manchester Millyard on Friday. (Photo by Mark Hayward)
It is the final stage of a continuum that started nine years ago when Kamen announced a $300 million initiative – the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute. ARMI was designed to channel laboratory breakthroughs in cell and body-tissue incubation into large-scale, commercial production.
The exact products to be manufactured in the Millyard will be based on need, said Jennifer MacDonald, the chief operating officer of ARMI. Likely products will be FDA-approved cell-based therapies to treat chronic medical issues such as diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease.
“We already have demand off the charts. We will be speeding this to open,” MacDonald said in an exclusive interview with the New Hampshire Business Review. The space should be open by 2027, extremely fast for such a facility, MacDonald said.
ARMI is providing “complementary funding” for the project, but MacDonald did not specify an amount.
During the symbolic groundbreaking, Kamen wielded a sledgehammer while dignitaries, including New Hampshire congressional Reps. Chris Pappas and Maggie Goodlander, lifted shovels of dirt, but no ground was actually broken.
The work involves bringing the millyard space up to clinical-good -manufacturing-practices standards, which govern the manufacture of pharmaceutical and medical products.
Kamen framed ARMI’s work as a unifying effort.
“We’re gonna knock down all the stuff, all the self-inflicted wounds that have made health care such a problem in this country,” Kamen said. “Oh, by the way, your government is now shut down in other places, mostly over the crisis in health care. Here, we are bringing all of it together.”
Pappas and Goodlander gave brief remarks, U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan were in Washington working on the government shutdown. They sent letters of support.
Mayor Jay Ruais also gave remarks.
Federal, state and local governments have been extremely supportive of ARMI.
In 2017, the Defense Department anteed up $80 million for the project.
New Hampshire state government will grant a 10-year tax break to regenerative medicine companies that locate in the state, and Concord will pay the tuition bills of any regen worker who spends at least five years working in the industry, Kamen said.
The $44 million U.S. Commerce Department grant went through the city of Manchester and will fund economic development in the region, including the renovation work, MacDonald said.
ARMI will disclose its exact share of the grant when it announces the contractor for the work; an announcement is imminent, MacDonald said.
Manchester inventor-entrepreneur Dean Kamen speaks to Congressional Reps. Maggie Goodlander and Chris Pappas on Friday before announcement of the Advanced Biomanufacturing and Workforce Development Training Center on Friday. (Photo by Mark Hayward)
The Advanced Biomanufacturing Facility and Workforce Development Training Center represents the completion of a continuum that involved research and development, regulatory leadership, quality control, engineering and automation, wrap-around business services for startups and now, manufacturing.
Several hundred people already work in the advanced regenerative manufacturing field in greater Manchester, and that is projected to grow to several thousand in the next few years, MacDonald said.
The manufacture will involve both autologous products, which are cultivated from a patient’s own body submissions, and allogeneic products, which are more akin to off-the-shelf products.
The industry is advancing quickly. Cell-based therapies are available now for patients. Clinical trials are taking place involving manufactured body tissue.
MacDonald said entire organs will eventually be produced in Manchester. Soon, she believes.
“The myth is that some of these technologies are two decades away,” she said.
Manchester inventor Dean Kamen announced on Friday the culmination of his effort to transform greater Manchester into a hub for regenerative medicine – millyard space dedicated to the actual manufacture of cell-based body repair products and, eventually, body parts.
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