Celularity leases NJ plant to make its off-the-shelf stem cell therapies

Celularity says the 147,000 square-foot campus in Florham Park will support its allogeneic placental-derived natural killer (NK) cell therapy candidates, and more investment is to come.

Clinical stage cell therapy firm Celularity has a pipeline of off-the-shelf placental-derived Natural Killer (PNK) therapies in development, with its lead program CYNK-001 set to move into Phase II trials for multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) this year.

To support its pipeline, the firm has entered a long-term lease agreement for a site in in Florham Park, New Jersey, which when it opens in 2020 will serve as its headquarters as well as comprise of a research and advanced cell manufacturing facility.

Image: iStock/Kathleen Gail

“We’ve invested in a long-term lease for a 147,000 square-foot property,” a Celularity spokesperson told us. While the actual investment has not been disclosed, we were told “costs for the lease are in line with other real estate properties in The Green at Florham Park,” and further investment will be made throughout this year as Celularity looks to grow its partnerships and build out the GMP manufacturing facilities.

Furthermore: “As we grow as a company and transition into the new space, we will add jobs across all functions and disciplines to meet our business goals. These will include new manufacturing, R&D and other key positions as we build out our advanced cell manufacturing and research facility for commercial-scale placental-derived allogeneic cell therapies.”

Full IMPACT

The firm chose to lease its own manufacturing facilities rather than use a third-party. “In order to develop truly off-the-shelf cell therapies from healthy, human placenta, we need to pair state-of-the-art manufacturing with our proprietary platform in-house in one, consolidated facility,” the spokesperson said.

“The Celularity team brings decades of specific knowledge and experience to this process that will ensure our investigational allogeneic placental-derived natural killer (NK) cell therapies are developed faster, more reliably, and more affordably.”

Its candidates are based on its own IMPACT (Immuno-Modulatory Placenta-derived Allogeneic Cell Therapy) Platform. IMPACT is an allogeneic placental immunotherapeutic platform that integrates biosourcing, cell manufacturing and productization, intended to reduce the time and cost of bringing cell therapies to market, the spokesperson said.

The platform includes Natural Killer (PNK) and cryopreserved PNK (CYNK) cells, along with genetically modified NK cells and allogeneic CAR-engineered placental T cells.