Galapagos has signed a strategic partnership with Blood Centers of America (BCA) to expedite the decentralised production of its chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies across the US.
This strategic partnership will utilise BCA’s extensive network, spanning over 50 community blood centres in 43 states.
The deal will facilitate in the good manufacturing practice (GMP)-compliant manufacturing of Galapagos’ CAR-T haemato-oncology clinical programme.
Using BCA’s network, Galapagos will conduct technology transfers to various sites concurrently with the decentralised production of the CAR-T product candidates close to cancer treatment centres.
Galapagos will also access apheresis capacity at BCA sites when required.
BCA will play a vital role in coordinating site initiation and onboarding processes, which will help Galapagos speed up its manufacturing efforts and maintain consistent quality across all locations.
Galapagos' decentralised manufacturing platform is designed to deliver fresh, fit cells with a median vein-to-vein time of just seven days.
Galapagos CEO Dr Paul Stoffels said: “Our collaboration with Blood Centers of America marks a major milestone for Galapagos’ US expansion by establishing centres for support of our pivotal studies, with the potential to be used for commercial introduction.
“Working with BCA’s extensive nationwide network allows us to efficiently scale up decentralised CAR-T therapy manufacturing across the US, while their established infrastructure helps us harmonise operations and access apheresis capacity.
“This agreement complements the existing collaborations between Galapagos and Landmark Bio and Thermo Fisher Scientific and translates to a significant step forward in our aspiration to bring CAR-T therapies to more patients with a vein-to-vein time of just seven days.”
The latest development comes after Galapagos and BridGene Biosciences entered a strategic partnership and licensing deal for the discovery of new small-molecule drug candidates for oncology targets.
