OBiO Technology Corp., a gene and cell therapy CDMO in China, and Univercells Technologies, a provider of biomanufacturing technologies for flexible and scalable advanced therapies and vaccine production, entered into a strategic agreement to deploy novel technologies in Shanghai.

The NevoLine Upstream biomanufacturing platform with scale-X bioreactors will now be offered in OBiO’s recently expanded GMP Shanghai facility to accelerate gene therapy manufacturing.

The strategic agreement combines the capacity and capabilities of OBiO process development (PD) scientists with enabling platforms and support from Univercells Technologies. The combined know-how and capabilities will put OBiO in the best position to offer GMP manufacturing services from R&D to commercial stages to gene therapy developers.

“Bringing gene therapies to market safely requires reliable, scalable manufacturing technologies. We were intrigued by the potential and became early adopters of the scale-X technology in 2020, said Jia Guodong, CEO, OBiO. “We will pursue this comprehensive collaboration with Univercells Technologies in multi products, conducting process development in the advanced fixed-bed bioreactor not only for HSV, but also for Lentiviral vector, Adeno-associated virus and other cell and gene therapy modalities. Such holistic capability will help customers accelerate their cell and gene therapy development while bringing substantial time and cost-saving benefits to developers and patients.”

Florence Vicaire, CCO, Univercells Technologies said, “As we enter this agreement, the teams are already planning to scale up the oncolytic HSV-1 process in the 600m² scale-X nitro integrated in the continuous NevoLine Upstream platform in record time. The work has been rewarding because both companies share a joint mission of applying technology innovation to enable gene therapies for better lives. “Throughout the process, OBiO has been an exceptional partner, demonstrating deep expertise in advancing gene therapy candidates from bench to clinics. We look forward to further increasing their capabilities to meet the growing demand for gene therapies at a reduced cost, in China and globally.”