Cellistic, the cell therapy development and manufacturing business of Ncardia BV, and Celyad Oncology, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell cancer therapies, today announced a transaction in which Cellistic will acquire Good. Manufacturing internship from Celyad Oncology. . Practice cell therapy manufacturing capacity, including existing facility and all associated personnel.
Under the asset purchase agreement between Celyad Oncology and Cellistic, Cellistic agreed to purchase Celyad Oncology’s manufacturing facility in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium for approximately $6 million. Celyad Oncology has an experienced development team joining Cellistic.
“We at Cellistic are incredibly excited to welcome this uniquely talented team into our organization. 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.”
Stefan Braam, founder and CEO of Cellistic
Michel Lussier, Founder and Interim Director of Celyad Oncology, said: “A few years ago, we set our foot on the allogeneic pathway, and our manufacturing facility and staff were a significant asset in enabling our earlier trials, but it has been underutilized in recent years, as we focused primarily on the field of autologous candidates. Our current allogeneic programs are more suitable for outsourcing. With the existing devices developed at Celyad, we have ensured that the resources to continue the clinical program with cells will be preserved until 2024 … Based on this plan, we are confident that the decision to transfer our manufacturing center and staff to Cellistic, which is ideal for such an agreement company, will allow us to continue to achieve our business goals in the future.
Cellistic is investing heavily in a newly acquired 11,000-square-foot facility that will be equipped with iPSC-based allogeneic cell therapy platforms and manufacturing processes to create the world’s first purpose-built cell programming and cell banking customer support center through clinical trial materials to kiss Cellistic will be joined by more than 30 of Celyad Oncology’s developers, personalities and related staff, all with extensive experience in cell therapy development and immuno-oncology, as part of this initiative.
Celyad Oncology will provide further guidance on the company’s future business strategy in the fourth quarter of this year.
About Cellistic
Launched in April 2022 as part of Ncardia, Cellistic™ specializes in the development and production of therapeutic cells based on pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology. Its focus and expertise in iPSC reprogramming, differentiation, and the development of complementary protocols position the company as the partner of choice for cell therapy developers to commercialize advanced therapies. Leveraging more than 10 years of Ncardia’s scientific and technological knowledge and experience, Cellist is uniquely positioned to design and optimize IPSC-based cell production platforms that deliver high-quality products at high volumes.
About Ncardia
Ncardia is a privately held PSC technology company operating globally with facilities, offices, and employees in Europe and North America. Ncardia is based on the belief that stem cell technology can help patients get better treatment faster. The company aims to enable drug discovery biopharmaceutical companies to accelerate their development process through the integration of human IPSC technology.
About Celyad Oncology
Celyad Oncology is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR T) cancer therapies. The Company is developing a pipeline of allogeneic (allogeneic) and autologous (specialized) CAR T cell therapy candidates for the treatment of both hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Celyad Oncology was founded in 2007 and is based in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium, and New York, New York. The company received funding from the Walloon Region (Belgium) to support the development of its CAR T-cell therapy programs.