eXmoor pharma, a cell and gene therapy manufacturing partner, and Virica Biotech Inc., a developer of viral vector enhancers, have announced a collaborative project aimed at improving the production of adeno-associated vectors (AAVs), a critical component of gene therapies.
 
The project, partially funded through a joint Canada-UK government initiative, seeks to address the high manufacturing costs associated with AAV production and make gene therapies more accessible to patients.
 
Virica’s VSEs, small molecules that enhance AAV productivity, will be combined with eXmoor’s scale-up expertise to identify promising candidates for commercial deployment. The partnership leverages Virica’s High Throughput Virology Platform, which has identified VSEs that augment innate cellular responses in manufacturing cells, including tuning the immune defenses of HEK293 cells to improve viral vector replication.
 
“We thank Innovate UK for supporting this project, which we believe will benefit not only our work but our entire industry – and most importantly, patients,” said Angela Osborne, CEO of eXmoor. “Together, Virica and eXmoor aim to produce validated and commercially relevant VSE enhancer formulations our clients can utilize, as well as other global manufacturing players.”
 
“The advisory services and funding provided by the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program and our partnership with eXmoor create a great commercial opportunity to increase efficiency and reduce costs of life-saving therapies,” said Jean-Simon Diallo, co-founder and CEO of Virica. “We look forward to building strong business relationships between Canada and the UK in the process.”
 
The joint project is part of the Canada-UK Biomanufacturing of Biologics and Advanced Therapies collaborative R&D competition, which aims to foster innovation and collaboration in the biomanufacturing sector. Virica will receive advisory services and funding from the NRC IRAP, while eXmoor will receive support from Innovate UK.