The deal – financial terms of which were not disclosed – Lentigen make HLA‑A2 CAR lentiviral vector for the production of CAR-Treg transplantation (ENTX#SOT), a cell therapy TxCell is developing with the University of British Columbia.
ENTX#SOT is designed to prevent graft-versus-host disease after transplantation. It was developed using TxCell’s ENTrIA platform which uses chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to direct antigen-specific regulatory cells (Ag-Tregs) to target autoimmune diseases.
The cell therapy is due to enter first-in-man studies at the end of next year.
Lentigen – which is owned by Miltenyi Biotec GmbH – will make HLA-A2 CAR lentiviral vectors batches for the trials. It will also make vectors for planned preclinical studies.
TxCell is looking for a second contract manufacturing organisation (CMO) to use the vectors to produce ENTX#SOT.
The French biotechnology firm said it is developing a manufacturing process for CAR‑Treg cells and expects to start the technology transfer to the selected CMO by the end of the year.
TxCell has previously announced deals with Belgian CMO MaSTherCell and US contractor PCT, a subsidiary of Caladrius Biosciences, both of which focused on the manufacture of its – which made the T-cell Crohn’s disease therapy, Ovasave.