The lease agreement will see Cellectis plan to build an 82,000ft2 manufacturing facility in North Carolina, US; the facility will be responsible for producing the company’s potential commercial product.
The company has also started construction of a 14,000ft2 facility in Paris, France, which will produce material supplies for clinical trial studies and for commercial purposes.
Cellectis is preparing to have a commercial supply of its potential products readied for the UCARTs (universal chimeric antigen receptor T-cells) therapies within its pipeline.
The allogeneic method of producing the therapies, where the technology can be produced using donor T-cells instead of requiring the patient to provide their own cells, opens up the possibility for industrialising the process. Successfully developing this technology could see the manufacture of CAR-T treatments take place at a faster and, potentially, more cost-effective rate.
Cellectis has previously relied on contract manufacturing organisations (CMOs) to produce its clinical materials and therapies but once construction is completed on the two facilities, the company will boost its internal capabilities and capacity.
André Choulika, CEO of Cellectis, stated that through building out its manufacturing capabilities, “[The company] will gain autonomy, control, and expertise in manufacturing operations, allowing us to continue to build competitive advantage and remain the leader in our field.”
However, Choulika stated that the company will retain its CMOs connections and that they remain ‘key partners’ in its production process.
Cellectis currently has a number of potential ‘off-the-shelf’ CAR-T treatments going through clinical trials in the US and is one of a number of companies exploring the possibility of this type of production.
Allogene, recently announced that it, too, would be pressing ahead with plans to build its own manufacturing facility for clinical and potential commercial production.
Given the issues experienced with autologous production of CAR-T therapies, the leaders in the field are already keeping an eye on developments that could render their own treatments obsolete.
