Specifically, they will be looking at ways to improve processes by speeding up and reducing the cost of manufacturing.
Vycellix and Avectas have announced they will be joining forces in the development of advancing approaches to cell-based immunotherapeutic products.
Florida-based Vycellix and Ireland-based Avectas agreed jointly to the collaboration to address current limitations for cell-based therapies. Specifically, they will be looking at ways to improve processes by speeding up and reducing the cost of manufacturing. Ultimately, the end goal is to conceivably be able to improve outcomes for patients.
“We are delighted to partner with Vycellix and join forces in the development of novel cell-based products,” said Michael Maguire, Ph.D., CEO of Avectas.
They will be working together on delivering Vycellix’s novel RNA immunomodulator VY-M utilizing Avectas’ cell engineering technology, Solupore. Solupore, unlike other cell-engineering platforms, is able to preserve the functionality of cells, deliver faster, and can be scaled to the volume required because of its cost-effectiveness.
“We believe Solupore® will play a critical role in the manufacture of cell-based therapies and will support a path towards effective patient outcomes,” Maguire said.
Vycellix’s President, Douglas Calder, also has a good feeling about Solupore’s future.
“Solupore represents a new paradigm for delivery of transgenes, and our initial studies will evaluate Solupore to deliver our product candidate, VY-M, to T cells and natural killer (NK) cells,” Calder said. “We expect to accelerate the expansion-time of T cells and NK cells by decreasing the non-dividing lag time, resulting in much shorter ‘vein-to-vein’ delivery-time to patients.”
Avectas will be conducting studies in their Dublin-based facility as well as at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.
Both companies are collaborative partners with NextGenNK. NextGenNK, launched in 2002, is a Sweden-based competence center for the development of next-generation Natural Killer (NK) cell-based cancer immunotherapies. Breakthrough research is currently being conducted using these NK cells as a treatment for cancer.
The Center is coordinated by Karolinska Institutet and collaborates with the Karolinska University Hospital.
“We are excited to see the NextGenNK Competence Center catalyzing interactions among its industrial partners to advance NK cell-based immunotherapies,” said Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the NextGenNK Competence Center.
Recently, Vycellix founders were awarded the Innovation Grant by Sweden’s Vinnova to discover new research on next-generation NK cell-based cancer therapy.
Avectas announced early this month, their collaboration with CCRM to commercialize Avectas’ Solupore technology.
