Excellos, Lonza and Akadeum Life Sciences jointly announced the launch of a collaborative project aimed at improving cell therapy manufacturing by elevating the role of starting material quality. The companies say the effort will emphasize how upstream factors — such as donor characterization and cell selection — impact downstream performance and clinical consistency.
According to the announcement, each partner brings distinct capabilities to the initiative: Excellos offers donor-to-dose expertise, including donor management, apheresis, cell characterization and GMP manufacturing; Akadeum contributes flotation-based cell separation technology; and Lonza provides the Cocoon Platform, a closed, automated manufacturing system designed for decentralized scale-up.
While the long-term goal is to evaluate the technical feasibility of combining these approaches into an integrated workflow, initial efforts will center on sharing best practices and aligned innovation strategies at upcoming events, said the companies.
An Aug. 12 symposium at Excellos’ San Diego headquarters, co-hosted with Teknova and Pluristyx, will cover topics including supply chain risk, regulatory evolution, as well as emerging tools such as AI and machine learning. An Aug. 21 joint webinar, “Unlocking Upstream Value: Donor-to-Dose Solutions for Scalable Cell Therapy Manufacturing,” will discuss upstream choices surrounding donor sourcing, apheresis processing, cell selection, and automated manufacturing.
Over the coming months, the companies reportedly plan to explore opportunities for deeper technical integration and data-sharing to help reduce variability, improve scalability, and advance the broader cell and gene therapy manufacturing field.
While 2024 was a “transformative” year for the cell and gene therapy (CGT) sector, significant challenges remain, according to the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. As potentially curative therapies, CGTs offer hope to millions of patients but remain complex and difficult to manufacture at scale.