Thermo Fisher Scientific to Up Manufacturing of Cell Therapies

Thermo Fisher Scientific and Lyell Immunopharma recently partnered to develop manufacturing processes create more effective cell therapies to benefit cancer patients.

The companies main goal is to improve the fitness of T cells and obtain access and insights into emerging and existing technologies. This will help boost the robustness and consistency of manufacturing operations, the announcement said. 

"Significant investment is being put toward understanding T cell biology, and Lyell has put together an impressive team to accelerate research and development that benefits the entire industry," Mark Stevenson, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific, said in the announcement.

"We're honored to join their effort, bringing complementary technology and capacity to make a difference for all patients who may benefit from cell therapies."

Additionally, the partnership will support Lyell with its development of an integrated cGRM-compliant platform including reagents, consumables, and instrumentation. 

"Addressing critical fail points in the development and commercialization of cell therapies requires specialized technologies and capabilities that complement our own," said Elizabeth Homans, president of Lyell Immunopharma. 

"Thermo Fisher offers the ideal combination of cell manufacturing technologies and as-needed capacity to enable accelerated product development and growth."  

Thermo Fisher is one of the leading companies in the gene and cell therapy sector. 

Back in May, the company announced the launch of a $180 million commercial manufacturing site to more than double the company’s commercial viral vector capacity to support increasing demand for the development and manufacturing of cell therapies and vaccines.

The project will add over 200 jobs and complement Thermo Fisher’s recently expanded capacity in Massachusetts and Florida, with the new Massachusetts-based manufacturing site slated to leverage digital connectivity and capabilities to enable operational efficiencies, high quality, data visibility, and advanced operator training, Thermo Fisher said.

The project is expected to be completed in 2022. 

Cell therapy essentially introduces stem cell populations into patients with chronic diseases, such as cancer, to replace diseased cells with healthy ones. 

Although currently cell therapy mainly focuses on cancer, it may be effective to treat other chronic diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease, type 1 diabetes, and heart disease. 

A handful of innovative medicines have previously been approved by the FDA and are currently helping patients. But recently, the cell and gene therapy market has increased significantly.

A March report found that there are 362 investigational cell and gene therapies currently in clinical development, a 20 percent increase from 2018.

A separate March analysis also uncovered that pharmaceutical companies manufacturing gene therapy, cell therapy, and other regenerative medicines raised nearly $10 billion in 2019, the second highest year on record. 

Last year, gene and gene-modified cell therapy raised $7.6 billion, while cell therapy raised $5.1 billion and tissue engineering raised $441 million in 2019. 

“We need to try to figure out how to enable greater access to cell and gene therapies into other indications,” Tim Lu, co-founder and CEO of Senti Bio, said in the analysis. 

“How do we go beyond making single changes, single modifications? I think it’s pretty clear now from the basic research that it’s possible. The design cycle for modifying and making these sort of therapies is only going to accelerate over the next decade and it’s a matter of how do we then take that matter, match that with the right indications, and really drive those into the clinic.”