Avectas, a cell engineering technology business and Vycellix, Inc. an immuno-discovery cell & gene therapy company, have entered into a collaboration to develop new approaches for cell-based immunotherapeutic products.  

The companies will collaborate on the delivery of Vycellix’s RNA immunomodulator VY-M using Avectas’ cell engineering platform, Solupore to address current limitations for cell-based therapies, in particular the need to accelerate the manufacturing process, reduce costs, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.

Both companies are partners within NextGenNK, a newly established competence center for development of next-generation NK cell-based cancer immunotherapies based at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.  Avectas and Vycellix will further expand their collaboration within the NextGenNK constellation.

“We are delighted to partner with Vycellix and join forces in the development of novel cell-based products,” says Michael Maguire, PhD, CEO of Avectas. “We believe Solupore® will play a critical role in the manufacture of cell-based therapies and will support a path towards effective patient outcomes.”

Vycellix’s President, Douglas Calder, said, “Solupore represents a new paradigm for delivery of transgenes, and our initial studies will evaluate Solupore to deliver our new product candidate, VY-M, to T cells and NK cells.  We expect to accelerate the expansion-time of T cells and NK cells by decreasing the non-dividing lag time, resulting in much shorter “vein-to-vein” delivery-time to patients.” 

The studies will be conducted at Avectas’ Dublin-based facility and at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.