Actym Therapeutics, a biotech focused on the discovery and development of novel cancer therapies, and Wacker Biotech, have signed a contract for the manufacturing of Actym’s lead clinical candidate, ACTM-838, for the treatment of solid tumors.

Wacker Biotech will initiate GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) production of Phase 1 clinical material of Actym’s therapeutic candidate at its site in Amsterdam using its LIBATEC technology. Both companies announced today that they are already working closely together on technology transfer and initiation of scale-up production of ACTM-838.

ACTM-838 is Actym’s lead clinical development candidate for the treatment of solid tumors. The therapeutic candidate is based on the company’s immunotherapy platform called STACT (S. Typhimurium-Attenuated Cancer Therapy), which delivers active compounds directly to tumor-resident immune cells.

“Manufacturing of ACTM-838 is an important milestone for our company. We are excited to work with Wacker Biotech given their significant experience manufacturing GMP-compliant, live microbial products in a closed production system,” said Christopher Thanos, president and CEO, Actym. “Wacker Biotech’s expertise in large-scale, high-quality microbial manufacturing is a perfect fit for production of therapeutic candidates for clinical testing from Actym’s state-of-the-art STACT platform.”

Wacker Biotech is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) pooling the biopharmaceuticals activities of the Wacker Group. Wacker Biotech will use its LIBATEC technology platform for live microbial products (LMPs) in the project.

Jörg Lindemann, managing director of Wacker Biotech B.V., said, “We are pioneers in the field of LMP production, having begun LMP contract manufacturing at our Amsterdam site in 2006. Our LIBATEC platform can be used for a wide range of LMPs. It is perfectly suited to supporting Actym with their STACT platform.”

Besides GMP-compliant process development and manufacturing, LIBATEC will be used for the development of analytical methods.