Cellectis, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing immunotherapies based on allogeneic gene-edited CAR T-cells (UCART), and Lonza have entered into a manufacturing service agreement covering clinical manufacturing of Cellectis’ allogeneic UCART product candidates targeting hematological malignancies. Lonza is in charge of implementing Cellectis’ manufacturing processes as per current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) in a way that meets the highest quality and safety standards outlined by the FDA. The manufacturing will take place at Lonza’s GMP facility in Geleen, Netherlands.
 
“Working with Lonza, a world-class solutions provider with deep experience in the biotech and pharma industries increases our global capabilities and allows Cellectis to further strengthen its manufacturing expertise,” said William Monteith, executive president, technical operations, Cellectis. “This agreement not only bolsters our product supply for clinical trials, but it ensures that we are producing first-rate product candidates so that we can potentially deliver new hope to patients living with certain blood cancers.”
 
Alberto Santagostino, senior vice president, head of cell and gene technologies, Lonza, said, “Early-stage innovators with great science, like Cellectis, can find an ideal partner in Lonza as we bring great value in technical development and manufacturing, industrializing processes and enabling the journey to commercialization. We will draw on the experience at our cell and gene therapy center of excellence in the Netherlands, ideally equipped to support Cellectis in bringing their promising pipeline of allogeneic CAR-T therapies to people around the world in need of life-saving products.”
 
Lonza’s supply will complement Cellectis’ ongoing collaboration and in-house manufacturing sites, IMPACT and SMART, which are currently under construction.
 
The manufacturing process of Cellectis’ allogeneic CAR T-cell product line, Universal CARTs or UCARTs, yields frozen, off-the-shelf, non-alloreactive engineered CAR T-cells. UCARTs are intended to be readily available CAR T-cells for a large patient population. Their production is  industrialized with defined pharmaceutical release criteria.