Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. and Ship of Theseus, a therapeutics company developing degradation-resistant homeobox (HOX) family biologics, have announced a Good Manufacturing Practice- (GMP) plasmid DNA contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) agreement under which Ship of Theseus will leverage Charles River’s expertise to manufacture GMP plasmid DNA to serve as the active drug substance for its lead candidate.
 
Ship of Theseus is developing a proprietary suite of biologics based on the HOX family of transcription factors, which are responsible for driving the differentiation of tissue stem cells towards their respective lineages to repair and maintain the correct function of tissues and organs. Proprietary modifications may enable these regulators to be used as therapeutics.
 
The collaboration between Charles River and Ship of Theseus will support therapeutic development for a variety of target indications such as diabetic and chronic wounds, neutropenia, psoriasis, androgenetic alopecia, women’s health and infertility, and epithelial cancers. Charles River’s GMP plasmid DNA CDMO center of excellence based in Keele, United Kingdom will lead the collaboration, providing services that include plasmid DNA backbone generation, plasmid synthesis, GMP master cell bank (MCB) generation, pre-production evaluation, and GMP plasmid DNA manufacture including in-house release testing.
 
“We are thrilled to work with Ship of Theseus to produce GMP plasmid DNA to help advance the organization’s mission to develop HOX family biologics,” said Kerstin Dolph, Corporate Senior Vice President, Global Manufacturing, Charles River. “Charles River’s robust plasmid DNA manufacturing portfolio and track record makes us the ideal candidate to produce this critical material which has the potential to impact numerous patient indications.”
 
Jeremy Elser, Founding CEO, Ship of Theseus, added: “Ship of Theseus is proud to collaborate with Charles River as our manufacturing partner of choice. We trust the team’s decades of success developing, producing, and reliably delivering plasmid DNA and look forward to bringing our therapies to patients.”