CellVec, a CDMO in Singapore, entered into a strategic partnership with Australia’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Center (Peter Mac) to manufacture and supply lentiviral vectors for their in-house pipeline of cell-based immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.
“CellVec’s mission has always been to innovate for patient benefit, which means lowering the cost of treatments while pushing the boundaries of innovation so more people can access the treatment they need,” said Gayatri Sharma, PhD, chief commercial officer of CellVec. “This marks a new chapter for us in the cancer space where our scientific and research capabilities can leave great impact—we are honored and excited to embark on this meaningful partnership with a world-class institution like Peter Mac to reach more cancer patients within Australia.”
Established in 2018 within the regional biotechnology hub of Singapore, CellVec was awarded GMP certification in 2020 by the Health Sciences Authority. Its facility is designed in line with PIC/S, FDA, and EU GMP specifications, ensuring compliant biosafety containment and aseptic processing conditions for the manufacturing of viral vectors, according to Lucas Chan, PhD, scientific founder and CSO of CellVec.
“The company overcomes current technological bottlenecks in the upscale production of viral vectors by developing efficient systems and processes through its in-house established lentivirus-based CellVec Vector Platform,” he said. “It comprises GMP-compatible molecular expression helper plasmids with sequences optimized in-house, third-generation self-inactivating lentiviral vectors, a GMP HEK293T Master Cell Bank and an efficient validated manufacturing process, which ensures improved production yields and high process consistency.”
Simon Harrison, PhD, professor and director of the Center of Excellence in Cellular Immunotherapy and a hematologist on the myeloma team at the Peter Mac predicted that “this partnership with CellVec will underpin and enable a pipeline of high-potential research focused on developing the next generation of immunotherapies.” Jane Oliaro, PhD, associate professor and chief scientist for the Center’s translation laboratory at the Peter Mac, added that “the enormous potential for cell-based immunotherapies to treat cancer simply cannot be realized without an assured supply of these vectors for our preclinical development program, and ultimately clinical application.”
