Asimov and Center for Breakthrough Medicines Collaborate for Viral Vector Production

Asimov, a synthetic biology company advancing the design and manufacture of therapeutics, announced a strategic partnership with Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM), a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) on Jan. 18, 2023.

The partnership led to Asimov licensing its clonal GMP HEK293 suspension cell line to CBM for pre-clinical and clinical production of viral vectors for its clients. According to the press release, HEK293 cell lines are the industry standard for producing therapeutic viral vectors, which are used mainly in gene therapies.

CBM will now be available for clients to get immediate access to a high-performance clonal good manufacturing practice qualified cell line as a measure of its comprehensive capabilities for vector manufacturing designed to deliver high yields and higher throughput without comprising quality.

“Our partnership with CBM is a major step forward in our goal to advance therapeutics manufacturing,” said Alec Nielsen, CEO of Asimov, in a press release. “This validates our efforts in the viral vector space, and supports other research directions in host cell optimization, genetic system engineering, and bioreactor process modeling and development. By licensing our HEK293 viral vector production platform, CBM will be able to provide their clients with immediate access to reduce the cost of manufacturing these complex therapeutics.”

The agreement finds CDM offering its clients access to the platform as a part of its end-to-end comprehensive capabilities for vector manufacturing designed to accelerate development and manufacturing timelines of vector-based advanced therapies.

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“We believe this is the initial step of many with Asimov, an industry leader in mammalian synthetic biology and cell line development,” said Avi Nandi, chief technical officer at CBM, in a press release. “We continue to make significant investments into our technology platforms to ensure our clients have access to an end-to-end solution that allows them to develop and manufacture at lower costs. Our goal is for rare disease therapies to be accessible to as many patients around the world as possible and our relationship with Asimov removes a key barrier to therapy developers.”

Source: Asimov