Cellectis and CELLforCURE Sign Into Manufacturing Agreement
Cellectis and French biopharmaceutical firm LFB Group subsidiary CELLforCURE announced that the companies have signed into an agreement to manufacture clinical batches of Cellectis’ allogenic CART Cells.
Under the terms of the agreement, CELLforCURE will produce candidates from Cellectis’ UCART (Universal Chimeric Antigen Receptor - T cells) product line. UCART candidates are allogeneic cell therapy products based on the CAR (Chimeric Antigen Receptor) technology combined with genome engineering. Engineered allogeneic T-lymphocytes with a CAR are designed to target tumor antigens and aid in treating various forms of leukemia, solid tumors, and lymphomas.
Dr Mathieu Simon, EVP at Cellectis, said, “We are very pleased of this partnership with CELLforCURE, a unique brand-new industrial platform dedicated to cell therapies and equipped with a state-of-the-art GMP manufacturing facility. It will ensure that Cellectis will have, in the long term, the means for the clinical development of its UCART product family and will add robustness to our ongoing regulatory applications.” Dr. Simon said the facility enables a novel way to affordably manufacture CART cell products. He also said that cGMP manufacturing of allogeneic CART cells changes the game for cancer adoptive immunotherapies.
The manufacture of UCARTs can be industrialized and standardized according to consistent pharmaceutical release criteria, both over time and from batch to batch. Additionally, risks linked with processing and timing for an autologous CART processing can be avoided. UCARTs are cost-effective and can be made available to a wide patient population, allowing any cancer center in the world to access them without the need for a local CART processing facility.
Pierre-Noël Lirsac, CEO of CELLforCURE, said that the company is pleased to develop Cellectis’ oncology product using a cutting-edge technology. “This partnership, signed with a company such as Cellectis, confirms the fast development of innovative therapies and the relevance of an industrial platform to manufacture these new treatments.”