Novartis has made an offer to acquire CellforCure from LFB. CellforCure, a French company, is one of the first and largest contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMO) producing cell and gene therapies in Europe.
 
Under the proposed agreement, Novartis would acquire the share capital of CellforCure from LFB including the cell and gene manufacturing facility located in Les Ulis and the related adjacent land. If the offer is accepted, CellforCure would become a wholly owned Novartis manufacturing site, joining the network of cell and gene therapy sites including Morris Plains, NJ in the U.S. and Stein, Switzerland, where construction continues to progress as planned.
 
In July 2018, Novartis signed an agreement with CellforCure to produce CAR-T cell therapies including Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), the first CAR-T cell therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and indicated for two distinct, difficult-to-treat cancers in the U.S., EU, Switzerland, Canada and Australia. Novartis and CellforCure have successfully completed technology transfer and Kymriah clinical supply production is expected to begin by mid-2019. 
 
Novartis has made several steps recently to strengthen and expand its cell and gene manufacturing, including signing a strategic licensing, collaboration and share purchase agreement with Cellular Biomedicine Group (CBMG) to manufacture and supply Kymriah in China; expanding an alliance with the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany to support manufacturing for clinical trials and post approval manufacturing; and a contract manufacturing collaboration in Japan.
 
“The proposed acquisition of CellforCure is another strategic step in our pursuit of additional manufacturing capacity to make our transformational CAR-T cell therapy Kymriah available to more patients in need around the world,” said Steffen Lang, global head of technical operations, Novartis. “If completed, this acquisition also would potentially increase manufacturing capacity for other cell and gene therapies in the Novartis pipeline. We are excited about the possibility of adding the significant experience of CellforCure to our existing leadership in pioneering research, development and supply of cell and gene therapies.”