MONTREAL, May 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ExCellThera Inc., an advanced clinical stage biotechnology company delivering molecules and bioengineering solutions to expand stem and immune cells for therapeutic use, announced today that it has entered into a manufacturing and collaboration agreement with Comprehensive Cell Solutions (CCS), a division of New York Blood Center (NYBC) for the clinical grade production of ExCellThera’s lead cell therapy product, ECT-001.
The agreement provides ExCellThera access to New York Blood Center’s cGMP clean room manufacturing facilities in New York for the production of ECT-001, to be used in clinical trials principally in the United States. ExCellThera’s near term pipeline includes several ongoing studies and additional trials using ECT-001 to be initiated in the coming months.
“The New York Blood Center holds one of the world’s largest blood banks and has over 50 years of leadership in research and development, medical services and laboratory services. We are extremely pleased to enter into this multi-year agreement which will allow us to work closer together and leverage their leadership and expertise in this specialized field,” said David Millette, Chief Operating and Financial Officer at ExCellThera. “ExCellThera expects a substantial scale-up in production to meet the needs of new trials coming online as ECT-001 advances through the final phases of its clinical development. This collaboration with NYBC will increase overall production capabilities by adding capacity to the existing manufacturing facilities in Montreal, Canada, while also providing redundancies, easing cross-border issues and providing further strategic collaboration opportunities.”
“We are proud to partner with ExCellThera as they work to create groundbreaking curative treatments for patients suffering from blood diseases. Their work has the potential to dramatically increase access to stem cells for patients who need them and unleash the therapeutic promise of the hundreds of thousands of cord blood units stored worldwide,” said Chief Medical and Scientific Officer at New York Blood Center, Dr. Beth H. Shaz. “New York Blood Center is the perfect fit for this endeavor. With its facilities, in the heart of the city’s life sciences corridor, NYBC can collaborate with leading international biotechnology companies doing critical work to advance medical research. As the creators of the world’s first and largest public cord bank, we’re excited about the opportunity to leverage our experience to support such an important mission.”
The ECT-001 technology is a combination of a small molecule, UM171, and an optimized culture system. The technology, capable of expanding the number of stem and immune cells exponentially in as little as seven days, is used in novel curative blood transplant therapies for patients with blood malignancies and other diseases, allowing more rapid engraftment, greatly reduced incidence of transplant-related mortality, low risk of chronic graft-versus-host disease and low risk of relapse, resulting in better outcomes for patients. The FDA has granted ECT-001 orphan drug designation for the prevention of graft-versus-host disease and regenerative medicine advanced therapy designation in the treatment of hematologic malignancies.
The agreement also provides further strategic collaboration between the parties, including opportunities to explore additional avenues to work together in pursuit of a common goal of improving transplantation protocol and the livelihood of patients.
About ExCellThera Inc.
ExCellThera is an advanced clinical stage biotechnology company delivering molecules and bioengineering solutions to expand stem and immune cells for use in novel one-time curative therapies for patients with hematologic malignancies, autoimmune and other diseases. ExCellThera’s lead solution combines a proprietary small molecule, UM171, and an optimized culture system. In pursuit of better treatments for patients, the company is building out its portfolio of products, as well as supporting best-in-class clinical trials. excellthera.com
About New York Blood Center
Founded in 1964, New York Blood Center (NYBC) is a nonprofit organization that is one of the largest independent, community-based blood centers in the world. NYBC, along with its partner organizations Community Blood Center of Kansas City, Missouri (CBC), Innovative Blood Resources (IBR), Blood Bank of Delmarva (BBD), and Rhode Island Blood Center (RIBC), collect approximately 4,000 units of blood products each day and serve local communities of more than 45 million people in the Tri-State area (NY, NJ, CT), Mid Atlantic area (PA, DE, MD), the Kansas City metropolitan area, Minnesota, Nebraska, Rhode Island, and Southern New England. NYBC and its partners also provide a wide array of transfusion-related medical services, including Comprehensive Cell Solutions, the National Center for Blood Group Genomics, the National Cord Blood Program, and the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute, which — among other milestones — developed the Hepatitis B vaccine and a patented solvent detergent plasma process innovating blood-purification technology worldwide. www.nybloodcenter.org