Consortium seeks to deliver fully automated, robotics CGT manufacturing platform
A consortium has been awarded a cross-industry Smart Grant of £1 million from Innovate UK, the country’s national innovation agency, to deliver a fully automated robotics cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing platform.
The consortium, which includes Cellular Origins, CGT Catapult, and Resolution Therapeutics, seeks to tap novel technologies to create “for the first time internationally, a globally-unique, hyper-efficient, fully automated, scalable cell therapy manufacturing platform,” according to the announcement.
Under the 20-month project, the consortium will deliver full integration of the hardware and software of Constellation — Cellular Origins’ CGT robotic manufacturing platform — at CGT Catapult’s Digital and Automation Testbeds in the Stevenage Manufacturing Innovation Centre, U.K.
“These Testbeds serve as good manufacturing practice (GMP)-mirroring sandbox environments for de-risked and accelerated testing and adoption of next-generation technologies,” according to the announcement. “CGT Catapult will commission the platform within the real-world manufacturing environment of its Testbeds to support the national and international roll-out of Constellation.”
Last month, Cellular Origins secured separate manufacturing collaborations with Johnson & Johnson and Thermo Fisher Scientific. The first customer installation of a robotically operated Constellation platform with the integration of Thermo Scientific Heracell VIOS AxD CO2 incubator technology has been completed at the Digital and Automation Testbeds at CGT Catapult’s Digital and Automation Testbeds in the Stevenage Manufacturing Innovation Centre.
“Cellular Origins’ already established network of partnerships, most recently added to with our collaborations with Cytiva, Fresenius Kabi, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Johnson & Johnson, gives this specific consortium access to proven robotically automated manufacturing technology,” CEO Edwin Stone said in a statement.