Ori Biotech Launches Its IRO Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing Platform

Ori Biotech reports that it launched IRO^®, a next-generation platform to overcome the current challenges in CGT manufacturing. The company made the announcement at ISCT 2024, the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy’s annual conference, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Manufacturing remains a critical barrier to scaling cell and gene therapies, limiting the clinical and commercial impact of this life-saving new class of therapies. It is estimated that more than 95% of patients are left without access to cell and gene therapies, according to Jason C. Foster, CEO, Ori Biotech, who adds that the company developed the IRO platform to enable widespread patient access to life-saving cell and gene therapies.

IRO has both the flexibility needed for early process development and the ability to scale into GMP manufacturing with the same instrument, consumables, and process, points out Foster. The IRO platform enables therapy developers to scale their products’ clinical and commercial impact, he notes.

Reduces labor, cost of goods, and processing times

By reducing labor by up to 70%, reducing the cost of goods by up to 50%, cutting processing times by up to 25%, and accelerating tech transfer times from months to weeks, IRO could shave years off therapy development timelines, bringing products to patients more quickly, continues Foster.

“A new wave of cell and gene therapies holds immense promise for patients; however, to achieve the true clinical impact, therapies must be not only approvable but also accessible and affordable,” he says. “Over the last five years, we’ve focused on Biology First, generating best-in-class biological data from over 500 runs with ten different partners, across different cell types and protocols to demonstrate how the IRO platform can Automate Better Biology. For too long, scientists and therapy developers have had to sacrifice biological performance for automation, not anymore.”

IRO automates, digitizes, and standardizes the most time-consuming and labor-intensive parts of the cell and gene therapy manufacturing workflow, empowering scientists with the flexibility and freedom to quickly optimize their processes and innovate, explains Farlan Veraitch, PhD, company founder and CSO.

“I started Ori to support and empower the scientific community to reduce the time and cost to develop and manufacture cell therapies in order to increase patient access,” says Veraitch. “IRO is the first, important step on Ori’s journey to develop innovations that support the heroes of cell therapy who are working so hard to enable widespread patient access to life-saving cell and gene therapies.”