Cell therapy weekly: Heidi Wagner appointed as Global Head of Government Affairs at ElevateBio
This week: Licensing agreement for plasmid production, Heidi Wagner appointed as Global Head of Government Affairs at ElevateBio and Charles River launches helper plasmid for AAV manufacturing.
The news highlights:
Licensing agreement for plasmid production
Evanoa Bioscience (FL, USA), a company developing cell lines for biologics manufacturing, and Aldevron (ND, USA), a manufacturing partner producing high-quality plasmid DNA, RNA and proteins, have signed a licensing agreement for two E. coli strains to be used in plasmid production. Since Evanoa’s novel E. coli strains produce more plasmid per cell and are more stable under fermentation conditions than current industry standards, Aldevron has licensed the strains to explore their utility for different applications.
Eudes de Crecy, CEO of Evanoa, stated: “Plasmid production is an integral component of cost for exciting new therapies including vaccines, gene therapy products and other biologicals. Technology that significantly reduces the cost of plasmid production promises to increase availability of these life-saving drugs to more patients and improve the business sustainability of increasing research investment into expensive and important new treatments.”
Heidi Wagner appointed as Global Head of Government Affairs at ElevateBio
ElevateBio (MA, USA), a technology-driven company powering the development of cell and gene therapies, has announced that Heidi Wagner will take the position of Global Head of Government Affairs. Heidi serves as a director on several boards, including Wave Life Sciences (MA, USA), the University of Colorado Foundation (CO, USA), the American Kidney Fund (MS, USA) and No Patient Left Behind (MA, USA). Prior to joining ElevateBio, Heidi held positions at Alexion Pharmaceuticals (CT, USA), Genentech (CA, USA) and most recently she served as Senior Vice President, Head of Government Affairs and Policy at Global Blood Therapeutics (CA, USA).
“We are delighted to welcome Heidi to the ElevateBio executive team to build and lead our global government affairs function and play a key role in supporting the national and global expansion of our company by extending the ElevateBio growth engine of our technology platforms and biomanufacturing network to catalyze advanced therapeutic development around the world,” said David Hallal, Chairman and CEO of ElevateBio. “Heidi’s deep expertise will be instrumental in advancing our strategic vision as we accelerate drug development for a growing number of our industry partners across our ecosystem while also selectively developing our own portfolio of genomic medicines.”
Charles River launches helper plasmid for AAV manufacturing
Charles River Laboratories (MA, USA) has launched its ready-to-use, off-the-shelf helper plasmid offering (pHelper), designed to simplify gene therapy supply chains and streamline adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapy programs. It is available in Research Grade (RG), High Quality (HQ), and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-grade to support programs from early discovery through to commercial manufacturing.
Kerstin Dolph, Corporate Senior Vice President, Biologics Solutions, Charles River stated: “The launch of Charles River’s pHelper plasmids are the first in the off-the-shelf plasmid product portfolio aimed at supporting AAV-based gene therapy programs. By reducing program development costs and simplifying supply chains, pHelper will help accomplish our ultimate goal of delivering safe, effective therapies to patients faster.”