BeiGene Opens $800M Flagship US Facility in New Jersey

On July 23, BeiGene opened an $800 million, 400,000-square-foot manufacturing site in Hopewell, New Jersey, which will be its flagship facility in the United States and a focal point in its aggressive strategy to deliver a bumper crop of oncology drugs and combinations, including 10 that CEO John Oyler said will reach the clinic this year.

Oyler and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy were on hand with local officials, patient advocates, business leaders, and BeiGene employees for the event, which drew about 300 people to the facility 15 minutes from Princeton University.

“It’s a great day for patients,” Oyler said.

With hands on scissors and white ribbon for survivorship, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, center left, and BeiGene CEO John Oyler, center right, formally open the company's $800 million, 400,000-square-foot manufacturing site in Hopewell, New Jersey. | Image credit: Mary Caffrey

Much of the emphasis today, from both BeiGene officials and from Murphy, was on delivering not just new drugs but also better access. “We built a company differently from the very beginning,” said Michael Schoen, strategic advisor and special assistant to the CEO. “It's built to do great science and to deliver impactful medicines. And it's built to maximize quality, speed, and affordability so we can truly meet the urgent needs in cancer.”

Initially, the site’s 130 employees will focus on manufacturing BeiGene’s PD-1 inhibitor, tislelizumab (Tevimbra). The facility will offer increased flexibility and supply chain diversity as the company pursues development of pipeline candidates, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and small molecule therapies. Schoen said the facility was designed to offer nimbleness to take on manufacturing needs of a collaborator if necessary. Growth plans include future clinical operations and a center for pharmacovigilance, although he said the precise schedule for these uses is not set.

The 42-acre site was originally eyed by Bristol Myers Squibb and will allow BeiGene to be surrounded by industry neighbors. In a statement, the company said being near 9 of the top 10 global biopharma companies factored into its decision making; besides Princeton, the site is 20 miles from the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, which is set to open a new facility.

Both Oyler and Schoen cited not only the talent of the state’s workforce but also the sense of urgency that Murphy’s administration, along with state and local officials, brought to the approval process. This allowed the building to open its doors just 27 months after groundbreaking. BeiGene pursued a novel construction strategy of shipping modular units to the site, which required transporting the pieces along local roads in an area first settled during the American Revolution. It was no simple task.

“If you want to tackle the challenges, then New Jersey is the best place to plant your flag,” Murphy said. “Only here in New Jersey will you find that holy grail combination of talent, location, and a rockin’ innovation ecosystem,” Murphy declared.

In the past year, “New Jersey–associated companies accounted for more than 50% of all FDA novel drug approvals,” Murphy said. “Think about that.”

Oyler said from the company’s earliest days in Pennsylvania, large pharmaceutical companies based in New Jersey had worked with BeiGene, and that the manufacturing talent in the state was second to none. “This site is going to help us bring medicines to millions and millions of more patients,” he said.

Thus far, BeiGene has not applied for tax credits from the state, according to ROI-NJ, which tracks major business and real estate developments in New Jersey.

Debbie Hart, the longtime president of BioNJ, a state trade group that includes BeiGene, said in an emailed statement that the opening was a key milestone. “This important occasion was marked by the presence of Governor Murphy highlighting the potential impact of this facility on advancing scientific innovation and showcasing New Jersey’s leadership as a leading life sciences hub. We extend our sincere congratulations and heartfelt gratitude to BeiGene for its commitment to the State and its dedication to patients worldwide.”

The BeiGene Pipeline

Just 14 years after its founding, BeiGene is already a $2.8 billion global oncology leader with 10,000 employees worldwide. Besides tislelizumab, BeiGene is well-known for its Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, zanubrutinib (Brukinsa), with indications in multiple blood cancers. Tislelizumab, meanwhile, has FDA approval in second-line esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and European Commission approval in non–small cell lung cancer, with other indications pending. At its most recent statement, BeiGene reported $752 million in first-quarter earnings, up 82% from the prior year period.

However, the big news at BeiGene is what’s coming: its investigational BCL2 inhibitor, sonrotoclax, now being studied as both a monotherapy and in combination with zanubrutinib, has shown promising progression-free survival results in blood cancers with less toxicity; its program for a BTK-targeting chimeric degradation activation compound is under way, offering hope for patients whose blood cancer becomes resistant to BTK inhibitors.

Tislelizumab is a key to the company’s growth strategy; in an interview last month at the American Society of Clinical Oncology, BeiGene’s Mark Lanasa, MD, PhD, senior vice president and chief medical officer for solid tumors, said the company viewed tislelizumab as its “foundational molecule” upon which it will build its best-in-class combinations. Studies include combining tislelizumab with anti-LAG3 and anti-OX40 antibodies, with results in gastrointestinal cancer anticipated later this year.

The pipeline also includes ADC degraders, its Pan-KRAS and MTA-cooperative PRMT5 inhibitors and its EGFR CDAC. In breast cancer, besides an ADC, BeiGene is studying its CDK4 inhibitor (BGB-43395) and a CDK2 inhibitor (BG-68501).

Cancer Is Personal

Illustrating the need was the fact that both Murphy and the area’s Congresswoman, Bonnie Watson Coleman, who took part remotely, are both cancer survivors; Hopewell Township Mayor Courtney Peters-Manning shared that she had lost her father to pancreatic cancer since the April 2022 groundbreaking.

In a comparatively short time, Schoen said, BeiGene has built an oncology pipeline that is poised to tackle up to 80% of the world’s cancers. “All patients deserve access to medicines that can change their lives,” he said.