Great Ormond Street Hospital and Leucid ink CAR-T manufacturing deal

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has agreed to manufacture Leucid Bio’s lead asset, LEU011 at the Zayed Center for Research in London, UK.

Leucid, a UK clinical stage biotech firm, which is focused on developing chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies using its lateral CAR platform to treat refractory cancers, has collaborated with GOSH to manufacture LEU011, a lateral CAR targeting NKG2D ligands, for use in human clinical studies.

“We decided to partner with GOSH to manufacture our CAR T-cell therapy because they are a world-renowned institution in the field of gene and cell therapy. GOSH has state-of-the-art facilities, including clean rooms, which are critical for the manufacturing of CAR T-cell therapies,” a spokesperson from Leucid told BioProcess Insider.

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“Our collaboration with GOSH allows us to leverage their expertise and resources to manufacture high-quality CAR T-cell therapies for our patients. Additionally, partnering with GOSH provides us with an opportunity to explore the potential of our therapies in pediatric applications, which aligns with our values and goals as a company focused on improving the lives of all patients.”

The firm expects to file its Clinical Trial Application (CTA) to begin the clinical trial in the first half of this year with an aim of dosing patients with solid tumors and hematological malignancies by the second half of 2023, subject to approval.

“The journey starts with a blood draw from an eligible patient,” the spokesperson said.

“Next, a particular cell type is isolated and engineered in such a way that it can now recognize specific proteins expressed by the patient’s tumor(s). It is then quality control tested to ensure that the manufactured medicine meets its pre-defined characteristics. The therapeutic dose comes frozen in bags which can then be thawed and infused when the patient is ready to receive the treatment.”

Subject to contractual duties, Leucid will own all Intellectual Property (IP) rights that arise from the production services carried out. Furthermore, financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, but the partnership is long-term “and will enable us to undertake multiple clinical programs in the years ahead,” said the spokesperson.