European Partnership to Promote Development of Anticancer Cell Therapy Products

A leading European contract manufacturing organization is teaming up with a start-up biotech company to promote the clinical development of two unique anticancer cell therapy products.

PharmaCell BV (Maastricht, the Netherlands) is a leading European-based contract manufacturing organization in the area of cell therapy and regenerative medicine. PharmaCell has experience in supporting Phase I through Phase III clinical trials and early commercial manufacturing of cell therapy products.

PharmaCell is located in the center of Europe and operates two state-of-the-art GMP (good manufacturing practices)-licensed facilities with combined area of more than 4,500 square meters for growth of human cells and tissues.

CiMaas (Maastricht, the Netherlands) is a biotech startup spin-off of Maastricht University (the Netherlands) focused on the development of immune cell therapy for cancer patients. The company’s lead products are a dendritic cell vaccine that is ready to be validated and tested in clinical trials and natural killer (NK) cells obtained from healthy donors that have already proven in rodent studies to demonstrate great antitumor activity.

PharamaCell and CiMaas have agreed to collaborate on the clinical development of CiMaas’ products. Under the agreement, PharmaCell will provide consulting services for the writing of GMP-compliant documents for the purpose of translating CiMaas' cell therapy processes into GMP compatible clinical products. Options have been taken on a full technology transfer trajectory to be started and executed at a later date. A continuation option on a Phase I and possibly a Phase II clinical trial is also part of the agreement.

Dr. Wilfred Germeraad, CSO of CiMaas, said, “It is a wonderful opportunity to work together and it will immediately speed-up our work in translating the lab procedures into clinical products ready to be tested in patients with cancer.”

Alexander Vos, CEO of PharmaCell BV, said, “The CiMaas team has shown to be successful in bringing their technology to the point of preparing the initiation of clinical studies. We are excited to support them to make their production process GMP-compliant and help clear the path to bring their innovative therapies to benefit patients.”

Related Links:
PharmaCell BV
CiMaas
Maastricht University