GERMANTOWN, Md., March 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Orgenesis Inc. (NASDAQ: ORGS) (“Orgenesis” or the “Company”), a global biotech company working to unlock the full potential of cell and gene therapies, announces that it has entered a collaboration with the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital in Rome to establish a Point of Care Cell Therapy center at the Hospital. Process work will be focused on supporting clinical trials related to therapies developed by both the Hospital and Orgenesis, joint research, development of new approaches, and validation activities for advanced cell and gene therapies.
“At the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, we are developing a number of cutting-edge therapies. Orgenesis’ new point-of-care center is being implemented to optimize promising therapies to potentially move into clinical trials and large-scale manufacturing, in a way that could substantially reduce overall costs. Producing therapies onsite drastically streamlines manufacturing efforts and reduce time to treatment for patients. We also look forward to working closely with Orgenesis to support efforts to advance our respective cell and gene therapies,” said Prof. Franco Locatelli, Director of the Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology and Cell and Gene Therapy.
Vered Caplan, CEO of Orgenesis, stated, “It is an honor to collaborate with the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, a pioneer Institution in the field of cell and gene therapies, which is developing life-changing therapies for children, our most vulnerable and deserving population. Further to this great work, the agreement also supports the expansion of our POCare Network capacity. We remain focused on finding exceptional partners like the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital to rapidly expand our POCare Network across Europe, North America, Asia and other regions around the world.”
Following implementation of the Point-of-Care cell and gene therapy center, Orgenesis’ goal is to deploy its Orgenesis Mobile Processing Units and Labs (OMPULs) onsite. OMPULs serve as multi-purpose, mobile, autonomous good manufacturing practice (GMP) facilities. OMPULs are modular in nature, allowing for rapid and cost-effective scale up as production needs require. These units are a deviation from traditional centralized manufacturing processes in that they enable decentralized onsite production of cell and gene therapies within a sterile and automated mobile processing center to streamline the process of bringing advanced therapies to market.
