CAMBRIDGE, England & ST. PAUL, Minn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cellular Origins, a TTP Company focused on enabling scalable, cost-effective and efficient manufacture of cell and gene therapies (CGTs), has today announced a collaborative partnership with ScaleReady, a joint venture between Bio-Techne, Fresenius Kabi and Wilson Wolf that brings together process development expertise, tools and technologies for scalable CGT manufacturing. The partnership aims to automate portions of ScaleReady’s CGT manufacturing workflow by using Cellular Origin’s robotic system for sterile liquid transfer.
As the CGT industry continues to demonstrate huge potential for the treatment of disease, including cancer, scalable and cost-effective CGT manufacturing has become essential. ScaleReady believes simplicity and repeatability are the key to practical scale out of CGT manufacturing, and the integration of Cellular Origins’ robotic system will advance that objective. One area for improvement is the industry’s reliance on labour to facilitate sterile interconnections, which creates complexities and introduces risk of error.
Cellular Origins’ and ScaleReady’s first project will be to standardise and automate interconnections between the modules of ScaleReady’s G-Rex®, a manufacturing platform used by therapy developers internationally to produce CGTs for clinical trials, including the most recently approved commercial therapies. This integration of Cellular Origins’ robotic system will eliminate variability in manual connection techniques. Further projects will automate additional components of ScaleReady’s workflow, such as the robotic movement of G-Rex into and out of incubators.
Dr Edwin Stone, CEO of Cellular Origins, commented: “ScaleReady’s technologies are widely adopted in the production of advanced, cell-based therapies. This collaboration demonstrates the adaptability of our robotic system, highlighting that it can be integrated seamlessly into existing workflows and allowing therapy developers access to scalable, cost-effective advanced therapy manufacture without significant process redevelopment.”
Josh Ludwig, Commercial Director at ScaleReady, said: “Our partnership with Cellular Origins is an important step towards ScaleReady’s mission to simplify and standardise CGT manufacture.Solving the liquid handling problem and proving how amenable a simple, modular, and scalable approach is to automation allows the field to see a path forward to economies of scale. Through this partnership, we plan to create a viable pathway using cell therapies for larger patient indications and front-line treatments by enabling therapy developers to implement automation when it makes the most sense, and when their products require it.”
Cellular Origins and ScaleReady will both be participating in the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT) Annual Meeting, 31 May – 3 June in Paris. Cellular Origins and ScaleReady will be exhibiting at Booth #4 and Booth #84, respectively, including live technology demonstrations.
