Senti Bio sells manufacturing site to Hong Kong PE firm for $38M

San Francisco-based preclinical biotech Senti Biosciences is selling off a manufacturing facility to a private equity firm that’s spinning it into a new contract manufacturer known as GeneFab.

Senti said Thursday it will sublease its recently constructed, 92,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Alameda, CA, to GeneFab, which is backed by Celadon Partners, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm. GeneFab will also acquire all of Senti Bio’s chemistry manufacturing and control capabilities for $38 million. The move will give Senti Bio enough runway to last into the fourth quarter of next year.

Philip Lee

Senti Bio’s co-founder and chief technology officer, Philip Lee, will take over as the CEO of GeneFab. Around 35% of Senti’s employees, including those experienced in CMC, synthetic biology and gene circuit development, will be transferred to GeneFab and the Alameda location. GeneFab will also add some other employees as part of the deal. Around 50 employees will be at the facility.

According to a release from GeneFab, the facility, constructed between 2021 and this year, will now be supporting the manufacturing of Senti Bio’s pipeline on a contract basis. However, the facility also has room for making Phase I/II clinical trial materials, cell and gene therapy production, cell banking and viral vector manufacturing.

“This transaction gives us ongoing access to the people, manufacturing technology, and facilities necessary to support Senti as a leader in Gene-Circuit enhanced cell therapies. Further, the non-dilutive capital and cost savings are instrumental in extending our cash runway to deliver on our future milestones,” said Senti Bio CEO Timothy Lu in a release.

Senti’s stock in June 2022 listed on the Nasdaq after wrapping up its merger with Omid Farokhzad’s blank check company, pulling together $140.3 million in gross proceeds, a figure that was less than half the $296 million expected when the merger was announced. Over the past year, the company’s stock price has fallen by more than 50%, and since April, the company’s stock price has hovered around $1.

manufacturing
gene therapy
biotech
private equity
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