Astraveus has received a €10.4m ($11m) grant from the French government to develop its cell and gene therapy manufacturing Lakhesys platform.
The grant is part of the French Government’s "Innovation in Biotherapies and Bioproduction" initiative. The non-dilutive funding was granted after a review of the company’s "SKALE" project for increasing performance and digitalisation of Astraveus’ Lakhesys platform by a committee of independent experts.
The current award builds up on Astraveus’ oversubscribed series seed funding, which raised €16.5m ($17.5m) in June. The financiers included AdBio partners, M Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, and Bpifrance Large Venture.
Lakhesys platform uses single-use microfluidic bioprocessors that mimic organ perfusion, thereby accelerating the molecular exchanges needed to produce therapeutic agents. The Lakhesys platform would allow for more efficient manufacturing and a reduction in labour, floor space and energy requirements, based on a 24 October press release.
As per Astraveus, the Lakhesys platform does not require a large-scale infrastructure, which can potentially reduce costs and processing time for cell and gene therapies.
GlobalData forecasts the cell and gene therapy market to be worth more than $81bn in 2029. This has led to an increase in the number and size of the facilities manufacturing these biologics. In October, Thermo Fisher added single-use bioreactors to its site in St Louis, Missouri, to allow the site to produce cell and gene therapies.
GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
Various governments and charitable foundations have also invested in cell and gene therapy manufacturing with the aim of improving patient access and reducing costs.
Cell & Gene Therapy coverage on Pharmaceutical Technology is supported by Cytiva. Editorial content is independently produced and follows the highest standards of journalistic integrity. Topic sponsors are not involved in the creation of editorial content.
