Cell therapy weekly: Bayer gains access to Acuitas Therapeutics’ lipid nanoparticle technology to strengthen gene therapy portfolio
This week: Bayer AG (Leverkusen, Germany) gained access to Acuitas Therapeutics’ (Vancouver, Canada) lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology, CN Bio (Cambridge, UK) appointed a new Chief Financial Officer and Matica Bio (TX, USA) launched new optimized GMP-grade cell lines.
The news highlights:
Bayer gains access to Acuitas Therapeutics’ lipid nanoparticle technology to strengthen gene therapy portfolio
Bayer AG (Leverkusen, Germany) has partnered with Acuitas Therapeutics (Vancouver, Canada), a biotechnology company developing LNP delivery systems. Through the development and option for license agreement, Bayer will be granted access to Acuitas’ LNP technology, which will be used to support in vivo gene editing and protein replacement programs.
“Complementing in-house expertise with external collaboration continues to be a priority in areas of high unmet medical need where insufficient, or no treatment options are currently available,” stated Friedemann Janus, acting Head of Business Development and Licensing/Open Innovation, Pharmaceuticals Division at Bayer. “Accessing state-of-the-art LNP technology through this collaboration will add momentum to our gene editing efforts for the benefit of patients.”
CN Bio appoints new Chief Financial Officer
CN Bio has appointed Samantha Macro as Chief Financial Officer. With over 15 years in life sciences and extensive industry experience, Macro will guide key commercial and strategic initiatives to grow the company’s organ-on-a-chip offerings across global markets. CN Bio develops and manufactures single- and multi-organ microphysical systems for multiple applications, including disease modeling and drug testing.
CEO of CN Bio, Paul Brooks, stated: “I look forward to working closely with Samantha, who brings great experience and will be a strong addition to CN Bio’s team. She has a proven track record in fundraising and will bring valuable [mergers and acquisitions] experience to the Company. We have reached a critical phase in the commercialization of our [organ-on-a-chip] technology, and Samantha will be instrumental in reaching our business goals and executing our continued growth strategy.”
Matica Bio launches optimized GMP-grade cell lines
Matica Biotechnology, a contract development and manufacturing organization specializing in fully integrated GMP cell and gene therapy manufacturing, has unveiled new optimized MatiMax™ cell lines, designed to have faster doubling times, improved transfection efficiencies and increased titers.
“The current industry standard for media-based cell line development — typically focused on a limited set of factors, such as glucose, glutamine, nitrogen and ammonia — can potentially limit scalability, which is mission critical when selecting cell lines during the early stages of cell and gene therapy development to stay competitive,” said Michael Stewart, Chief Technology Officer at Matica Bio. “As a specialized CDMO, we are changing the rules of the game by incorporating a more holistic, multi-dimensional philosophy into our cell line platforms for cell and gene therapies, which incorporates some of the most advanced processes, analytical technologies and media analysis available. This fine tuning is absolutely necessary to reduce bottlenecks for any viral vector expression system, which, in turn, can improve yields and enable doubling times that are faster than other cell line service offerings on the market.”