Orgenesis teams with Johns Hopkins’ in first post Masthercell sale PoC deal

Johns Hopkins University will use Orgenesis’ point-of-care processing technology for cell and gene therapy research in a collaboration announced this week.

The US research University has licensed access to Orgenesis’s ‘point-of-care’ (PoC) platform which – as the name suggests – is used to develop and process cell therapies in the clinic

Orgenesis CEO Vered Caplan said, “Our POCare platform is designed to provide unique cell and gene therapy solutions in a cost effective, high quality and scalable manner, using closed systems and other advanced cell processing technologies at the point of care.”

Image: Tingtingou/creativecommons

Caplan added the aim is to support Johns Hopkins University’s growing development and processing needs in order to advance and accelerate cell and gene based clinical therapeutic research.

News of the collaboration comes weeks after Orgenesis sold Masthercell, its third-party cell and gene therapy business, to Catalent for $315 million (€285 million).

At the time Orgenesis said it expects to use the net proceeds from the sale of Masthercell to grow its point-of-care cell therapy business

Caplan said, “We decided it was the right time to sell Masthercell to maximize value for our shareholders, and focus our efforts around our POCare solutions, which we believe represent a major paradigm shift and will play a major role in the future of the cell and gene therapy market.”

She explained that by helping healthcare providers switch from costly, centralized manufacturing models to a localized point-of-care model it can reduce costs and accelerate cell therapy development.

Point-of-care tech

The point of care platform is designed to collect, process and supply cells within the patient care setting for various therapeutic treatments.

The aim is to reduce cost and complexity of supplying cell and gene therapies, as well as elevate quality standards by integrating automated processing.

Johns Hopkins University is the third institution to license use of the technology.

In January, Orgenesis announced the University of California, Davis will use the platform to develop, commercialize and supply cell and gene products and therapies.

Prior to that Orgenesis’ joint venture with Theracell signed an agreement with Greece-based Hygeia Group covering use of the platform at three hospitals owned by the latter organization.