The commercialization plan was announced this week along with details of a licensing deal that grants Asymptote rights to the intellectual property (IP) underpinning the tech.
Magdalena Blanco, Programme Manager, CGTC told us “Asymptote and CGT Catapult entered into a collaboration agreement last year to co-develop this technology. After one year, the technology is mature enough and CGT has licensed out the IP rights.”
Despite being a collaboration, development of the vial and bag technologies on which the thawing systems are based was funded by CGT which owns the IP.
Blanco said under the agreement Asymptote has “rights to commercialise these units worldwide as it’s a worldwide, exclusive and royalty bearing license.”
Asymptote CEO John Morris said: “We are now preparing for commercial launch of the new devices with the first in the family expected to be on the market before the end of the year.
“We see this technology as a big step forwards for the cell and gene therapy industry as it fills in an important gap in the cryochain, helping to guarantee cell-based therapies reach patients in perfect condition for an effective treatment” he said.
Capacity and tech
CGTC – which used to known as Cell Therapy Catapult – was set up by Government Agency Innovate UK in 2012 to help grow the UK’s cell and gene therapy industry.
In addition to providing developers with capacity to test production processes, the organisation also tasked creates enabling technologies. Another recently announced project was the development of a low-cost viral vector production platform with Sympromics.
All technologies developed by CGTC will be available to the biopharma firms that work with the organisation.