Mustang Bio, a Fortress Biotech company focused on the development of novel immunotherapies based on proprietary chimeric antigen receptor engineered T cell (CAR T) technology, has opened a CAR T cell therapy manufacturing facility at UMass Medicine Science Park in Worcester, MA. The 27,000 sq. ft. facility will support the clinical development and commercialization of Mustang’s CAR T product candidates and enable proprietary cell therapy research.

The initial build-out of the facility has been completed, and Mustang anticipates processing patient cells by the end of 2018. The facility will initially be used in the clinical development of Mustang’s lead CAR T product candidates: MB-102 (CD123 CAR) in acute myeloid leukemia and blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, MB-106 (CD20 CAR) in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and MB-101 (IL13Rα2 CAR) in glioblastoma.

“We are pleased to announce the opening of our CAR T cell therapy manufacturing facility, which will enable us to process personalized cell therapies to be used in the clinical development and commercialization of CAR T products for the treatment of aggressive forms of cancer,” said Manuel Litchman, president and chief executive officer, Mustang. “Moreover, establishing in-house cell therapy research capabilities will enable us to continue to differentiate our product candidates through innovation in cell processing and the evaluation of immuno-oncology technologies, like checkpoint antibodies and oncolytic viruses, in combination with our CAR Ts. We look forward to building our clinical and chemistry, manufacturing and controls teams in Worcester, and anticipate filing our first Investigational New Drug Application in late 2018 for MB-102 in acute myeloid leukemia and blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm.”