Sherlock Biosciences opens UK biomanufacturing facility at Swavesey for host of diagnostic devices
Sherlock Biosciences opened its new UK biomanufacturing facility in Swavesey this week and expects to bring its first diagnostics to the market in 2024.
The company said the 36,000 square foot site on the Buckingway Business Park off Anderson Road will support the production of five million diagnostic devices, with the capacity to grow. It will begin with sexual health products.
“The opening of this new facility is the latest milestone following Sherlock’s acquisition of Sense Biodetection earlier this year,” said Bryan Dechairo, CEO of Sherlock. “Since then, while preparing the biomanufacturing centre, we’ve been melding our teams together, as well as integrating chemistry, manufacturing capabilities and technology. We’re excited to enter this next phase together and are poised to change the course of global health.”
St Ives and Oxford-based Sense Biodetection received a CE Mark in March 2022 for its Veros Covid-19 rapid diagnostic and was working on a lab-quality home flu test prior to its acquisition in February.
Sherlock, a global health company, uses proprietary CRISPR and synthetic biology technologies to develop its diagnostics, which aim to bring “the lab accuracy of PCR with the convenience and ease-of-use of antigen tests for molecular diagnostics at the point-of-need”.
Its new site features a purpose-built, ISO 13485-certified manufacturing facility, featuring Class 8 clean rooms where Sherlock is validating production capabilities for proprietary disposable molecular diagnostic devices, lyophilised reagent beads and carbon particle lateral flow strips.
Kristin Riley, Sherlock’s VP, operations, said: “We built this facility with a pragmatic approach to scale-up, ensuring we had capacity for what the company needs at each stage of its growth.
“Central to our design was our commitment to ensuring that we deliver affordable diagnostics to the world, and because of the scale and infrastructure of this facility we can deliver on this commitment today and in the future.”
It sees opportunities in the fields of infectious disease, early detection of cancer, treatment monitoring and precision medicine and, in 2020, made history with the first FDA-authorised use of CRISPR technology.
A spokesperson for the company told the Cambridge Independent: “Sherlock’s facility will produce components for diagnostics for a wide range of diseases, starting with sexual health. Our disposable molecular diagnostic devices will bring down the costs of diagnostics and allow for PCR-quality results, untethered from a central lab.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has shown the demand for affordable, accurate and accessible diagnostics at home. We see opportunities with our proprietary platform for DNA and RNA detection to meet this demand, making molecular diagnostic tests accessible to people at the point of need, be that in the home or in low resource setting globally.”
The location was a natural choice for the company.
“Sherlock Biosciences selected the Cambridge region because it is a world-renowned hub for biotechnology,” continued the spokesperson.
“The availability of top research and scientific talent makes this location an ideal location for making diagnostics.
“We acquired Sense Biodetection in February and the company is representative of the high quality of science that is emerging from the area. The scale and infrastructure of the facility itself can help us meet the commitment to deliver affordable diagnostics to the world.”
There are currently 45 employees at the facility, which was officially opened yesterday (Tuesday), and Sherlock expects to grow its numbers by about 10 per cent this year.
