Midwest biotechnology company Aldevron held an open house May 24 at its Madison location to show off its recently expanded office space and tell the public a bit about its history and plans for the future.
Aldveron has seen a rapid increase in business and as such, has been expanding its office space. Most recently the biotech company completed a renovation that doubled its space in its innovation lab and collaboration space, increased the size and capacity of its upstream and downstream processes and created more admin space for its employees.
In 2021, Aldveron expanded to the second floor of its Madison location and this year took over the entire third floor.
“We increased our space to include the second floor and this year, we took over the entire third floor and more of the first. Like I said, [Aldevron is] pretty close to doubling our size of space and the need of staff to operate it — we added 30-plus in 18 months,” Ellen Shafer, senior director of communication at Aldevron, said at the event.
Aldveron started in North Dakota in 1998. The company is a premier manufacturer that provides nucleic acids and proteins used to make gene and cell therapies, gene editing technologies and DNA and RNA vaccines. The company opened its Madison location in 2009 and has progressively expanded its operations and footprint in the city. In 2021, Aldveron was purchased by the Danaher Corporation conglomerate and joined its umbrella of other biotech companies.
The open house was an opportunity for Aldveron to discuss its journey so far and show the public a bit of its facilities. Vice president of Aldveron, Tom Foti, saw the opportunity to tell attendees about where Aldevron has been, where it’s going and gave a tour of the expanded space.
The space Foti was most excited about was the innovation lab on the newly taken-over third floor where Aldveron conducts research and development and focuses on analytical method development to improve processes and products.
“This is one of the labs I’m most excited about. When you are a contracted development manufacturing organization, you are often making what your client needs. Maybe they need proteins, so we make proteins, but what happens is after a period of time you need to invest in new processes… new products,” Foti said.
Aldveron built the innovation lab with the intention and space for several years of growth. The venture took a while to accomplish but Aldveron sees it as a necessary investment as a private company with a need to rapidly expand.
The tour moved down to the second floor where its quality control, downstream process development and analytical method validation takes place. The tour ended with the first floor where a good deal of its lab space and warehousing is held.
Following the tour Foti and his team cut a ribbon to signify that the new space is officially open and on the path to continue its growth. Its attention is turning toward work in treating Sickle Cell Anemia after the FDA approved gene therapy for treatment last month.
