MaxCyte announces a partnership with Kite to explore the use of flow electroporation technology to enable the non-viral cell engineering of CAR-T drug candidates.
The collaboration between MaxCyte and Kite, a Gilead subsidiary, will expand upon an existing deal announced on November 12, 2018.
The original deal was signed for the same purpose: to use MaxCyte proprietary flow electroporation technology platform for non-viral cell engineering.
With the updated deal, Kite will have access to use the platform in order to develop up to 10 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T drug candidates.
MaxCyte will receive development and approval milestones, as well as sales-based payments and licensing fees. Other financial details of the deal were not released.
"We're excited to take our relationship with Kite further into product development, providing the company the ability to leverage MaxCyte's versatile cell engineering platform to enable the power of gene-editing for clinical and commercial development of critical new CAR-T therapeutics," said Doug Doerfler, CEO of MaxCyte.
Improving CAR-T production
MaxCyte’s flow electroporation technology uses an electrical charge to produce the reversible permeability of cell membranes. This allows for the transfer of molecules, such as nucleic acids and proteins, into the cells thereby creating cell therapies.
According to MaxCyte, the production method is scalable from small-scale R&D to large-scale cell-engineering for global patient treatment.
The ability to improve on existing CAR-T production methods could be significant, as they are currently expensive to produce and, as has been found by its rival, can be unpredictable in creating therapies to the correct specification.
