June 23, 2015
Lonza Group Ltd. in Switzerland and Octane Biotech Inc. in Canada have agreed to enter into an exclusive technology evaluation of the Octane Cocoon™ cell production platform for personalized cell therapy manufacturing with the goal of a global deployment of this groundbreaking innovation.
Unlike current, labor-intensive production methods, the Octane Cocoon has the potential to enable the automated manufacturing of patient-specific cell therapies for maximum efficiency, traceability and scale-up. Under the terms of the agreement, Lonza will evaluate the Octane Cocoon platform for autologous cell therapy products. Lonza, a leading global manufacturer of cell therapies, is well positioned to test this promising solution to meet the challenges often associated with personalized manufacturing.
“Octane provides an essential piece of innovation in a medical area that will ultimately only be successful if we address questions around quality standards, cost of goods, development timelines and logistics,” said Uwe Gottschalk, Chief Technology Officer of Lonza Pharma&Biotech. “With the Octane Cocoon platform, breakthrough therapies such as cancer immunotherapy may be translated into a new manufacturing paradigm, and Lonza is pleased to have access to this potentially game-changing technology. This collaboration for the patient-scale manufacturing complements our efforts to establish allogeneic production standards based on bioreactor processes, and it underlines Lonza’s technology leadership in cell and gene therapy manufacturing.”
Tim Smith, CEO of Octane, added, “Over the last decade, our organization has been intensely focused on breaking through the biggest obstacles in patient-specific cell therapy manufacturing. Our design and production teams invented the Octane Cocoon platform with multiple first-to-market, clinically oriented features to ensure successful deployment across centralized and decentralized facilities. Projected growth in autologous cell therapy products requires a new and sustainable manufacturing outlook, and Lonza is an ideal partner to commercialize these innovations for international markets.”
The collaboration between Lonza and Octane is directly aligned with the rapid growth of personalized medicine over recent years and the significant impact it is projected to have on patient care. Octane and Lonza are ideally positioned to support clinical adoption and scale-up of new treatment standards arising from recent successes in the field of advanced therapy medicinal products.
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