The €6m ($6m) transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
Launched in April 2022 as a subsidiary of Ncardia, Cellistic specializes in process development and manufacture of cell therapies based on human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology.
The company says it will invest substantial capital into the newly acquired 11,000 square foot facility, which will be optimized for its iPSC-based allogeneic cell therapy platforms and processes creating the world’s first purpose-built facility to support customers from cell reprogramming and master cell banking through clinical trial material manufacturing. Alongside the facility, Cellistic gains a team of more than 30 manufacturing, quality and related personnel from Celyad Oncology, all with substantial cell therapy manufacturing and immune-oncology experience.
“We at Cellistic are incredibly excited to welcome this uniquely talented team into our organization,” said Stefan Braam, founder and CEO of Cellistic. “We’re bringing aboard a group of people whose passion and capabilities align incredibly well with our vision for the future of cell therapy. As a joined force, we have the talent and resources to further accelerate work on our proprietary platforms and the capability to enable Cellistic’s partners to bring iPSC-based allogeneic cell therapies to patients faster.”
Celyad Oncology is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) therapies for cancer. Founded in 2007, the Company is developing a pipeline of allogeneic (off-the-shelf) and autologous (personalized) CAR T cell therapy candidates for the treatment of both hematological malignancies and solid tumors.
Michel Lussier, co-founder and interim CEO of Celyad Oncology, said, “We have focused our efforts on an allogeneic approach for the past few years and our manufacturing facility and staff has been a key element to enable many of our past trials, but has been underutilized in recent years as we mainly used the facility for our autologous candidates. Our current allogeneic programs are better suited for outsourced manufacturing. Through existing materials manufactured at Celyad, we have ensured the means to continue our clinical programs with cryopreserved cells until 2024. Based on this strategy, we are confident that this decision to transfer our manufacturing facility and the staff to Cellistic, who is the perfect company for such an agreement and will allow us to further execute on our business goals in the future.”