AstraZeneca, Multiply Labs assess robotic automation for cell therapy manufacturing

Multiply Labs, an advanced therapies automation company headquartered in San Francisco, and AstraZeneca, a global biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Cambridge, UK, announced an agreement to evaluate the application of GMP-ready robotic systems for commercial-scale cell therapy manufacturing.

The collaboration will focus on end-to-end robotic automation of industry-standard instruments used in cell therapy production using Multiply Labs’ robotic biomanufacturing system. The companies said the effort is intended to support scalable, high-throughput manufacturing while maintaining quality and regulatory requirements for clinical and commercial operations.

“Cell therapies are among the most promising, yet complex medicines being developed today,” Multiply Labs CEO Fred Parietti said in a statement. “This agreement with AstraZeneca allows us to evaluate our multi-arm robotic clusters in a setting where we can combine some of the world’s best scientific and clinical expertise with our robotic platform to build the next generation of high-throughput, GMP-ready cell therapy manufacturing.”

Multiply Labs said its latest systems use four robotic arms operating in parallel to run a range of cell therapy manufacturing instruments already deployed across the industry. The architecture is designed to reduce the need for process changes while increasing output within existing manufacturing facilities, according to the company.