Avectas will provide access to its Solupure platform, which Vycellix will use to deliver its product candidate, VY-M, to T cells and NK cells.
According to Vycellix’s president, Douglas Calder, the use of Solupure will allow for the accelerated expansion time of T cells and NK cells by ‘decreasing the non-dividing lag times’ – the overall aim being to reduce the ‘vein-to-vein’ delivery time to patients.
In addition, the companies hope to reduce the cost of manufacture and to develop proprietary approaches for cell-based immunotherapeutic products.
Both companies are partners within NextGenNK, a center based on the development of NK cell-based cancer immunotherapies in Stockholm, Sweden.
The collaborative studies that will occur between the two partners will be divided between the Karolinska Institutet and Avectas’ Dublin, Ireland facility.
Vycellix willl use this platform to aid in the development of its pipeline of therapies, which includes VY-101 – a retargeted optimized NK cell therapy. The company hopes to be able to submit an investigational new drug filing in 2021 for the treatment candidate.
Avectas recently signed an agreement to also utilize the platform alongside the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine to speed up the cell engineering process.
The company’s Solupure platform uses membrane disruption to deliver nucleic acids and proteins to cells rather than viral cell engineering.
