Cellectis bioresearch won a potentially $9.51 million contract to provide stem cell services to NIH and other U.S. government agencies. Under terms of the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract, Cellectis will carry out services including the production of clinical-grade induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines and differentiation of iPS cells towards specific tissue cell types of clinical grade.
Over the last two years Cellectis has secured licenses to core iPSC technology generated by Kyoto University’s Shinya Yamanaka, Ph.D., one of this year’s Nobel Prize winners. These licenses have been instrumental in Cellectis bioresearch’s ability to secure the NIH contract, which followed a call for tenders, the firm explains. The contract is also the largest secured by Cellectis to date, and positions the firm as one of the major players at developing stem cell technologies in both in vitro research applications and regenerative medicine, claims CEO Andre Choulika.
Cellectis’ deal with NIH follows just a week after Lonza announced winning a roughly $9.5 million contract from the NIH Center for Regenerative Medicine for the cGMP manufacture of iPSCs and clinical-grade iPSC-derived cell types.
