Partners aim to remove clinical trials bottleneck

Life sciences firm ViroCell Biologics is working in partnership with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) to help alleviate a major barrier to progress in clinical trials.

ViroCell develops gene modified cells and viral vectors – high-value delivery vehicles used to make cell and gene therapies.

Its focus covers the area where viral vector design and GMP manufacturing bottleneck is most acute – the zone between pre-clinical concept and pivotal clinical trials.

Through its new partnership with GOSH, the firm aims to more than double the UK’s lentivirus vector manufacturing capacity for clinical trials in 2022. Lentivirus are a family of viruses which infect by inserting DNA into their host cells’ genome.

The production of the vectors will take place in GOSH’s Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Disease in Children, within its state-of-the-art clean room suites.

The partnership will help to “dislodge the logjam that currently prevents promising, novel cell and gene therapies from entering clinical trials”.

ViroCell’s team has developed more than 100 viral vectors for clinical trials in the last 20 years.

John W Hadden II, CEO of ViroCell, said: “Together ViroCell, GOSH, and the Zayed Centre for Research have created a global one-stop-shop for viral vector manufacturing and gene-modified cell manufacturing for translational cell and gene therapies.

“We are proud to be partnered with such a prolific clinical research team that boasts a stunning track record of academic innovation in cell and gene therapy.

“We embrace GOSH’s commitment to bring novel therapies into the clinic for inherited or childhood diseases and commit to help GOSH speed the manufacture of viral vectors for those interventions.”’