Vector BioMed launches CDMO following $15m funding

The CDMO says the funding will support delivery of rapid access to lentiviral vectors for pre-clinical development, clinical trials, and commercialization.

Vector BioMed, a contract development manufacturing and organization (CDMO) focusing on the production of lentiviral vectors, has launched after its first financing round. “The first tranche was $7.5 million of $15 million,” a spokesperson for the start-up told BioProcess Insider.

The funding aims to take the company’s vector-based medicinal concepts from the clinic and accelerate them towards commercialization. To do so, Vector will offer turnkey solutions for optimization and vector design, pre-clinical production, GMP manufacturing, and support for various services.

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“Vector BioMed is different since the company is specialized as a solution provider with a platform technology and process to rapidly supply our partners with high-titer Lentiviral vectors,” Boro Dropulic, the CEO of Vector said.

“All that a partner needs is to tell us the gene they want to deliver, what cell type they want to deliver to, and the disease they are targeting.  Vector BioMed then uses its experience and proprietary algorithms to develop and manufacture the most optimal Lentiviral vector to meet the needs of the desired therapeutic candidate.  We also provide value for our partners with a scalable manufacturing process. Resources are wasted when companies are forced to purchase a large lot of GMP vector if their requirement is for a small lot of GMP vector for a Phase I [or] II clinical trial.”

The commercial success of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of Novartis’ Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), Bristol Myers-Squibb’s (BMS) Breyanzi (lisocabtagene maraleucel; liso-cel) and Abecma (ide-cel), Johnson & Johnson’s Carvykti (ciltacabtagene autoleucel; ciltacel), and Kite’s Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) and Tecartus (brexucabtagene autoleucel), has created an increased demand for custom lentiviral vectors.

Breaking the backlog

According to the CDMO, the significant rise in demand for lentiviral vectors has led to an 18–24-month backlog for lentiviral vector production services. Vector says it is well positioned to ease the vector supply bottleneck with the use of its algorithm-optimized vectors and a serum-free suspension vector platform that can enable rapid clinical development.

“Now is the perfect time to launch our business,” said Dropulic. “With the FDA granting approval of several gene therapy products, there is now a tremendous demand for the manufacture of lentiviral vectors, which are critical for clinical trials and commercialization.”

The firm will carry out the work at its 25,000 square-foot plant in Gaithersburg, Maryland.