Cellular Biomedicine Group adopts GE Healthcare tech for CAR-T therapy production
CBMG announced it had asked GE to install the tech this week, explaining it selected the system in an effort to accelerate and improve the production of its portfolio of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-Cell therapies.
CBMG is the first CAR-T developer to adopt the technology, which is used by companies like Dr Reddy’s, BeiGene and JHL to make biologics.
CBMG CEO Tony Liu said, “This is a productivity revolution in the CAR-T space – this new generation of semi-automated and standardized CAR-T manufacturing capabilities created by GE Healthcare and CBMG may allow cell therapy to provide an optimal platform and opportunity for general oncology patients.
“This long-term collaboration with GE could help us utilize digital technology, semi-automation and analytics, in an effort to reduce overall costs, and deliver treatments to patients more efficiently,” Liu added.
GE Healthcare claims its modular FlexFactory technology can be set up in nine months, which is around half the time it takes to set up other biomanufacturing systems.
Under the agreement, GE will provide staff training and support through its collaboration with the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM).
CBMG said it expects the FlexFactory installation to be operational before the end of the year.
A GE Healthcare representative told us, “Most of the cell processing equipment is developed and manufactured in the US and Europe, from where it will be shipped to China.”
She also told us the firm is in talks with other CAR-T developers, explaining, "We have a number of ongoing discussions, but nothing that we can disclose at this point."
