Orgenesis Inc., a developer, manufacturer and service provider of advanced cell therapies, has formed a collaboration with MangoGen Pharma initially focused on the pre-clinical development of insulin producing cells (IPC) using MangoGen’s advanced gene delivery platform. Under this initial collaboration, the companies will work together to develop a complete solution for the delivery of IPC cells to murine animal models. The company also announced that it has been awarded a grant from the Canada-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation (CIIRDF) to fund this project.
 
“We look forward to working with MangoGen, which has developed an innovative virus vector for the delivery of DNA utilizing baculoviruses,” said Vered Caplan, chief executive officer, Orgenesis. “We believe that the MangoGen baculoviral delivery and encapsulation system has the potential to increase the potency and performance of our transdifferentiation technology, as well as other cell therapies we are developing and those of our customers. Baculoviral systems have a number of advantages over other vectors due to the fact that they do not integrate into the hosts DNA and are therefore unlikely to cause problems with mutation or immunogenicity. By using MangoGen’s baculovirus, it could potentially enhance manufacturing processes and reduce the cost of goods for Orgenesis’ IPCs and other cell therapies. We are also pleased that we received this grant from CIIRDF, which is a further validation of the technology and could help accelerate our research.”
 
Paul Plested, chief executive officer, MangoGen Pharma, said, “We are delighted to partner with Orgenesis on this exciting project to further enhance the efficacy and manufacturability of Orgenesis’ transdifferentiation technology through our baculoviral gene-delivery and encapsulation technology. We see broad potential for this platform technology within the cell therapy and regenerative medicine markets. Orgenesis is an ideal partner given their broad expertise and capabilities as both a developer of advanced cell therapies and leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO).”