Construction of the new POCare Center, to be known as the Maryland Center for Cell Therapy Manufacturing, has been funded in part by a $5m grant from the State of Maryland; and the 7,000-square-foot facility has been designed to meet US Food and Drug Administration standards.
The facility will provide Johns Hopkins clinicians and researchers with a more streamlined path to treat patients and take promising and novel treatments from the lab to patient trials. The model provides local capacity for processing of clinical therapeutics at the point of care, rather than having to outsource clinical trial cell and gene therapy manufacturing to third parties.
The establishment of the new POCare Center will also enable rapid scale up of additional processing capacity through connecting/servicing Orgenesis Mobile Processing Units and Labs (OMPULs): which can shorten the implementation time of new capacity from 18-24 months to 3-6 months.
Construction of the center is expected to start in Q2 2022 and be operational in Q2 of 2023. Orgenesis will base 30 employees on the site when it is completed.
Founded in 2012, Orgenesis is a Germantown, Maryland based biotech: focused on developing cell and gene therapies in an affordable and accessible format at the point of care. The Orgenesis POCare Platform consists of three components: a pipeline of licensed POCare Therapeutics that are processed and produced in closed, automated POCare Technology systems across a collaborative POCare Network.
The company identifies promising new therapies, using its platform to provide a harmonized pathway for therapies to reach and treat large numbers of patients thanks to efficient, scalable and decentralized production.
“Orgenesis continues to develop and extend key partnerships within its international POCare Network. These international partnerships are now experiencing significant investment and construction across the globe to build on the achievements within the Network, as illustrated by our expanded collaboration with Johns Hopkins,” said Vered Caplan, CEO, Orgenesis.
“We are honored to work with Johns Hopkins, America's first research university and home to nine world-class academic divisions working together in one university. The POC Center at Johns Hopkins will help propel the development of therapies targeting a range of conditions that directly affect the lives of millions of patients.”
