SwiftScale Biologics Expanding to Oakland

 By David Gross

Monoclonal antibodies are typically grown in eukaryotic Chinese Hamster Ovary or CHO cells.  This leads to a number of challenges in terms of cost, quality, and consistency during manufacturing.  South San Francisco-based SwiftScale Biologics is looking to bring radical change to this process by growing mAbs in bacteria.  This technique is sometimes referred to as "cell free" manufacturing.  To advance this effort, the company is expanding its presence to an industrial building at 2105 Livingston Street in Oakland.   Asking rents for the property are $19.20 per square foot according to LoopNet.

SwiftScale is headquartered near Genentech in South City at in a Class B building at 458 Carlton Court.  Asking rents for that property are approximately $40 per foot, with Class A space nearby now topping $70.