Cytiva and Bayer partner to develop allogenic cell therapy platform

Cytiva and Bayer have partnered to develop what they claim is the first modular end-to-end manufacturing platform for allogenic cell therapies.

The multi-year development deal, of which no financial details have been disclosed, is already underway and aims to deliver production solutions to meet industry demands.

Cytiva and Bayer say that this partnership will help to establish industry standards for manufacturing through their shared vision of a modular allogenic cell therapy manufacturing platform. The end goal is to accelerate speed to market and reduce costs of production infrastructure through a jointly created modular design of processes and equipment.

Image: Stock Photo Secrets

Both parties will provide resources, staff, and facilities to accelerate the development program. Cytiva will supply its equipment, manufacturing knowledge, and technology roadmap to design the platforms, and when complete, the firm will work to make them commercially available.

“At Bayer we anticipate leveraging our existing Biotech team for this program and we will add staff as needed,” a spokesperson for the firm told BioProcess Insider.

Furthermore, Bayer’s development product portfolio will be used as candidates to support proof of concept testing of the technologies and the firm’s allogeneic cell therapy manufacturing technology will also be used.

“Collaborations are key to advancing and accelerating the development of novel therapeutics and ultimately helping improve patients’ lives,” Catarina Flyborg, vice president, Cell and Gene Therapy, Cytiva said.

“Cytiva has a strong history as a leader in therapeutic manufacturing technologies and our collaboration with Bayer and their deep expertise in cell therapy development will enable us to create a new generation of manufacturing solutions specifically designed to meet the developing needs of allogeneic cell therapy.”

According to Cytiva and Bayer, the decision to partner showcases their commitment to accelerating the development of cell and gene therapies and their accessibility.

“By combining forces, we believe that we can significantly reduce the time needed (historically taken 7-10 years) to design and align with industry on as a manufacturing consensus platform. Our goal is that we will be testing our first prototypes within the next one to two years with more mature solutions available within two years thereafter,” the spokesperson for Bayer said.