Catalent bones up on CGTs with Skeletal Cell Therapy buy

Catalent has agreed to buy Bone Therapeutics’ manufacturing unit – Skeletal Cell Therapy Support SA – and make trial supplies of the candidate bone disease cell therapy, ALLOB.

The contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) will pay €12 million ($14 million) for Skeletal Cell Therapy Support SA (SCTS), which operates a 3,800 square meter manufacturing facility, development lab and warehouse at the Brussels South Charleroi Biopark, in Belgium.

The site produces Bone’s allogenic cell therapy candidate ALLOB, which has been granted orphan designation for the bone diseases osteonecrosis and osteogenesis imperfecta by both the EMA and the US FDA.

Image: iStock/Oleh Veres

After the transaction – which is expected to close in November – Catalent will make ALLOB for ongoing clinical trials. According to Bone all staff working at the site will become part of Catalent’s Cell & Gene Therapy division.

The supply deal also grants Bone access to Catalent’s network of clinical and commercial facilities, which it said “will ensure ongoing optimization, sustainability and a global reach for the production of ALLOB, as the product heads through clinical development and anticipated commercialization.”

The transaction excludes any IP rights, thus Bone Therapeutics will retain the know-how and ability to tech transfer ALLOB production.

Manja Boerman, President, Cell & Gene Therapy, Catalent, said, “Bone Therapeutics’ GMP manufacturing facility is an excellent strategic and operational fit.

“The new team from Bone Therapeutics’s SCTS will make a significant contribution to our existing talent. Their extensive experience in MSC-based cell therapies will further expand our service portfolio and allow us to best support ALLOB’s progress towards commercialization.”

Cell therapies

The acquisition is Catalent’s second in the cell therapy space in 2020.

In February, the CDMO paid Orgenesis $315m for its Masthercell contract manufacturing unit in a deal that included manufacturing facilities in Gosselies, Belgium and Houston, Texas.

Catalent also added a facility adjacent to the existing building that Masthercell is building for commercial-scale manufacturing and development. Construction is due to be completed by the end of 2021.