Elicera Therapeutics has announced that Vinnova has granted the company and its project partners 5 million SEK in grants to develop an automated process for CAR T-cell manufacturing.

Elicera Therapeutics and its collaborators at Karolinska Institute and their production unit, Vecura at Karolinska Sjukhuset, Uppsala University and Akademiska Sjukhuset in Uppsala are preparing for a clinical phase I/II-study using Elicera’s armoured CAR T-cell therapy, ELC-301, for treatment of B-cell malignancies.

Vinnova has granted the project 5 million SEK to develop an automated CAR T-cell manufacturing process to be implemented as Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). The manufacturing process is expected to simplify the current labour consuming manufacturing process, de-centralize the manufacturing sites and thus make CAR T-cell therapies more accessible to cancer patients.

“All in all, it will further strengthen our position in the field of cell and gene therapy.”

“CAR T-cell therapies are very complex to manufacture. Our aim is to establish an automated production process to reduce manufacturing time, improve robustness and decrease production failure,” says Jamal El-Mosleh, CEO of Elicera. “If we are successful, we expect to be able to add yet another important asset to our portfolio of intellectual property by filing for a patent application to protect the automated manufacturing process. We will be able to use this process not only for ELC-301 but also for our CAR T-cell therapy in solid tumors, ELC-401. All in all, it will further strengthen our position in the field of cell and gene therapy.”

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