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12 Worcester Business Journal • July 18, 2016 www.wbjournal.com FOCUS Life sciences Precision medicine pioneer With Marlborough move, GE aims to be global leader in customized health solutions "It's one thing to talk about biomanu- facturing and the acceleration of bio- manufacturing, but it's quite another thing to walk through your laboratories upstairs and walk through your space upstairs and see how you are disrupting the very notion of how a company or even a destination can think about par- ticipating in the bioprocessing arena," said Travis McCready, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, at the facility's grand opening on June 23. GE plans to help push precision med- icine forward worldwide through its biomanufacturing offerings and its diag- nostic contrast media agents. This includes its FlexFactory manufacturing platforms – designed in Marlborough – which produce small batch, end-to-end biologic manufacturing solutions using single-use technologies that can be scal- able for large populations. The FlexFactory can either be set up in an existing facility or lab or inside of one of GE's KUBio modular biologics factories, which are pre-fabricated and shipped, piece by piece, to any location. A FlexFactory or KUBio can be up and running within 11 months, according to GE. KUBios are meant to spur produc- tion of biosimilars – drugs that are simi- lar to drugs made by different compa- nies – in developing countries. Massachusetts impact The $27-million, 210,000-square-foot headquarters on Results Way in Marlborough has been operational since January, but GE held a grand opening event for it last month. At the event, GE Healthcare Life Sciences President and CEO Kieran Murphy said Life Sciences decided to make the leap to Massachusetts long before GE's North American corporate headquarters set- tled on Boston. Part of the reason the life sciences division moved here was to better lever- age GE's 2012 acquisition of Xcellerex, a Marlborough company that specializes in single-use bioreactors. The acquisi- A t its new Marlborough headquarters, GE Healthcare Life Sciences is focusing on developing the tools that can help produce personalized drugs. The now-local company, a provider of solutions for drug production as well as imaging agents, is using its worldwide presence and connections, biomanu- facturing expertise and location in the heart of Massachusetts' booming life sciences sector to help researchers, biotech and biopharma companies and clinicians make advances in molecular and precision medicine, or customized health solutions to some of the world's deadliest diseases. BY LAURA FINALDI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer Travis McCready, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, gave a brief speech June 23 at the grand opening of GE Healthcare Life Sciences in Marlborough. P H O T O / M A T T W R I G H T GE Healthcare Life Sciences' new Marlborough facility was up and running in January. The 210,000-square-foot facility includes 40,000 square feet of lab space and will employ 500 at its full capacity. P H O T O / M A T T W R I G H T