Frontrunners in Automated Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing

Over the past two decades, 32 cell and gene therapies (CGTs) have been approved by the regulatory authorities worldwide, and more than 2000 novel products are under clinical investigation (1). However, many patients do not have access to these life-saving therapies, partly due to the complexity and high cost of manufacture (2). But how can CGTs be made more cost-efficient given the high labor and facility costs?

According to Miguel Forte, CEO, of Kiji Therapeutics, France, and president of the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy, “It is clear that CGTs have the opportunity to deliver enormous value to patients; nonetheless, manufacturing is complex, and it has been challenging to deliver the product. Innovative technologies and services have enabled the industry to move towards an automated, closed-system approach that is easier and safer to operate and is less costly and closer to the patient.”

Technological advances in manufacturing

Cell therapies can be derived ex vivo from autologous cell therapies (patient to patient), allogenic cell therapies (donor to patient), or in vivo cell therapies (cell line to patient). Each approach requires manufacturers to tailor the biomanufacturing process to generate specific cell types (and/or vectors), safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively. Manufacturing tools have tended to lag behind scientific advances in CGTs leading to bottlenecks in cell production. Currently, most CGT manufacturers use disconnected single-step/modular or semi-automated solutions; however, the industry is migrating towards fully automated cell therapy manufacturing processes (3). And this approach could significantly reduce manual intervention, risk of contamination, and human error; improve product quality and speed of delivery; and reduce production costs (4).

According to David Smith, vice president of Development, BioCentriq, “Labor costs, and facility costs are sky high, which have led to high price points, particularly in autologous cell therapies where production is 1:1. Automation is a key part of improving costs, reducing labor both in and outside the clean room, and implementing release by exception can help to reduce bottlenecks. Companies are trying to integrate unit operations whether it’s an ‘all-in-one-box’ approach or a ‘unit-operator’ approach where units can be plugged in or out and are integrated within robotic systems to offer greater flexibility.”

For instance, Lonza’s Cocoon Platform and Miltenyi Biotec CliniMACS Prodigy offer an ‘all-in-one-box’ approach providing a closed, automated system for patient-scale cell therapy manufacturing from cell isolation, activation, transduction/transfection, expansion, and harvest within a validated cell manufacturing system (5,6). CliniMACS Prodigy modular Instruments can also be run in parallel to provide large-scale batch production.

UK-based Ori Biotech launched its IRO platform developed in 2024 in collaboration with CTMC (a joint venture between Resilience and MD Anderson Cancer Center). This platform automates the activation, transduction, expansion, and harvest of a wide range of cell types to rapidly scale up manufacturing from the clinic to the commercial setting (7).

Paris-based Astraveus SAS has developed the Lakhesys Benchtop Cell Factory, an end-to-end solution for the manufacture of adherent, non-adherent, and inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) (8). The company has raised €16.5 million in seed financing and received a €10.4 million grant from the French government as part of its “Innovation in Biotherapies and Bioproduction” initiative, to advance the development of its technology (9).

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About the author

Cheryl Barton, PhD is director of PharmaVision.

Article details
BioPharm International®
eBook: Emerging Therapies
September 2024
Pages: 4–7

Citation

When referring to this article, please cite it as Barton, C. Frontrunners in Automated Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing. BioPharm International Emerging Therapies eBook 2024, September.