Dendreon Corporation officials expect the Seal Beach biotech firm’s factory to be fully licensed by mid-2011.
“Construction of the Dendreon Seal Beach immunotherapy manufacturing facility is substantially complete and we anticipate licensure of the facility in mid-2011,” said Tricia Larson of Dendreon Corporate Communications in an e-mail to the Sun.
In related news, Dendreon Corporation’s fourth quarter earnings report is scheduled to be released in March.
The Seal Beach factory will make Provenge, a cancer treatment that “teaches” the patient’s immune system to fight cancer. Provenge is currently approved to treat terminal prostate cancer patients. Provenge is Dendreon’s only product at this time.
Dendreon Corporation-sponsored studies indicate the treatment adds three or four months to a patient’s lifespan.
Provenge is the first treatment to use the patient’s own immune system against cancer.
The product is also known as sipuleucl-T.
When fully operational, the Seal Beach plant will operate 24 hours a day. The 180,000 square foot facility is expected to employ several hundered people.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Provenge in April 2010.
The Seal Beach Planning Commission approved the conditional use permit for the Dendreon factory in November 2009.
