Life sciences companies that have chosen to locate in the old Philadelphia Navy Yard received a visit from two members of Congress, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) and House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), who came to tour the facilities and discuss ongoing federal investment in the Navy Yard, according to a press release from Rep. Scanlon’s office.
One of the companies they visited, Iovance Biotherapeutics, is currently working to improve patient care by making T cell-based immunotherapies broadly accessible for the treatment of patients with solid tumors and blood cancers. The firm said they moved to the Navy Yard as a way to connect more deeply not only with “the silicon valley of Philadelphia,” but also to take up their home in the Philadelphia’s BioPharm cluster, which has over 15,000 employees and 170 companies, 30 of which are part of the biotech industry.
“The Philadelphia Navy Yard is emerging as a center of economic activity for our region,” said Rep. Scanlon. “I was honored to host Majority Leader Hoyer today to show him how this area is leading Philadelphia’s transition from its industrial roots to the economy of the future. Once a federal shipyard run by the Navy, the area sat dormant after closing in the 1990s, but now boasts employers spanning industries from shipbuilding and manufacturing to life sciences and more.”
