Bayer Launches Cell, Gene Therapy Platform for Pharma Innovation

Bayer recently announced the launch of a cell and gene therapy platform (C&GT) within its pharmaceutical division.

The platform will further consolidate its emerging leadership in the cell and gene therapy field and transform its overall business, the company said.

Simultaneously, Bayer is pursuing external strategic collaborations, technology acquisitions, and licensing. The overall goal is to build robust platforms with broad applications across various therapeutic areas.

“This is a defining moment for Bayer. Cell and gene therapies are leading innovation in healthcare, and it is our goal to be at the forefront of this revolution in science,“ Stefan Oelrich, member of the board of management at Bayer AG and president of the company’s pharmaceuticals division, said in the announcement.

“The C&GT field is growing at an unprecedented pace. With the establishment of Bayer’s own C&GT Platform our company will propel its presence in this area. This will complement our existing C&GT pipeline which already includes five advanced assets with at least three investigational new drugs annually for the next years,” Oelrich continued. 

The addition of the C&GT Platform to Bayer’s portfolio complements the company’s $240 million acquisition of BlueRock Therapeutics back in 2019.

With this transaction, Bayer received full rights to BlueRock Therapeutics’ CELL+GENE platform, including a broad intellectual property portfolio and associated technology platform. These portfolios included proprietary iPSC technology, gene engineering, and cell differentiation capabilities.

Bayer also recently acquired an industry-leading contract manufacturing organization in gene therapy, Asklepios, for $4 billion.

As part of the acquisition deal announced in October of this year, Bayer gained full rights to AskBio’s gene therapy platform, which includes investigational pre-clinical and clinical-stage candidates for the treatment of neuromuscular, central nervous system, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases.

The platform allowed Bayer to bring urgently needed treatments to patients across multiple disease areas with high unmet need.

Bayer’s recent investments in product supply capabilities, acquisitions, and the new C&GT Platform will contribute to fill the global demand gap for development and manufacturing of gene therapies, the company stated.

Currently, the company’s pipeline consists of five advanced assets and over 15 preclinical candidates. The new platform will allow the company to focus on stem cell therapies, gene augmentation, gene editing, and allogeneic cell therapies in different indications.

Additionally, the C&GT Platform will combine multiple backbone functions and provide support across the value chain for the research and development of cell and gene therapies. 

This includes expertise in research and preclinical development, chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC), clinical development, commercial, strategy implementation and project management, Bayer said. 

“The emerging bio revolution represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a new era for Bayer,” said Wolfram Carius, head of Bayer’s new C&GT Platform. “A dedicated C&GT Platform is vital to accelerate innovation at its source, and to ensure its translation into tangible therapies for patients who have no time to wait.”

Experts believe that the next generation of cell and gene therapies holds significant promise for patients because the alternative treatment option represents an advancement in personalized medicine.

Currently, there are 362 investigational cell and gene therapies in clinical development, a 20 percent increase from 2018, according to a report from Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). 

Some of the diseases and conditions pharmaceutical companies are currently targeting using gene therapies include hemophilia A and hemophilia B, malignant myeloma cells, Stargardt disease, and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Notably, increases in cell and gene therapy development over the next few years have the ability to help patients with other conditions and diseases.