Agilent Invests $725 Million in Nucleic Acid-based Therapeutics

Agilent Technologies announced a $725 million investment in nucleic acid-based therapeutics on Jan. 9, 2022. Therapeutic nucleic acids, also known as therapeutic oligonucleotides or oligos, are short DNA and RNA molecules that serve as the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for various drugs. The investment will be used to double manufacturing capacity to produce APIs.

According to a company press release, the investment will add two new manufacturing lines (Trains C and D) to Agilent’s Frederick, Colo., facility. The expanded facility will employ advanced automation and engineering enhancements such as water reduction and solvent capturing and recycling. Customer shipments from the expansion are expected to begin in 2026.

“One of our strategic priorities is to help existing and new biopharma customers develop, globally commercialize, and accelerate growth of oligo-based therapeutics,” said Sam Raha, president, Diagnostics and Genomics Group, Agilent, in the release. “This additional capacity will enable us to meet strong demand for siRNA [small interfering RNA] and antisense molecules and also significantly increase the number of CRISPR [clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats] guide RNA programs we can take on.”