Cellares Partners with Kite Pharma for Cell Shuttle Evaluation

• Cellares announced that Kite Pharma will evaluate its automated manufacturing platform, the Cell Shuttle.

• The evaluation will determine the viability of the Cell Shuttle for future use by Kite Pharma.

Cellares, the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) dedicated to clinical and industrial-scale cell therapy manufacturing, has announced that Kite Pharma, a Gilead Company, will evaluate its automated manufacturing platform, the Cell Shuttle. This proof-of-concept evaluation aims to generate data to assess the viability of the Cell Shuttle as a future manufacturing option for Kite.

Fabian Gerlinghaus, CEO and Co-Founder of Cellares, stated, “This agreement with Kite allows the unique capabilities of our Cell Shuttle platform to be potentially utilized by Kite in the future, and reinforces Cellares’ position as a cell therapy manufacturer with advanced automated technology. We aim to fully automate all cell therapy manufacturing processes, moving us closer to delivering CAR T-cell therapies for a wide range of autoimmune diseases and cancers. We are honoured to work with an industry leader such as Kite, that already is serving patients worldwide with two commercially approved cell therapies.”

Chris McDonald, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Technical Operations at Kite, added, “Given that manufacturing is central to how we deliver CAR T-cell therapies to physicians and patients, we are always assessing what technologies could further enhance our best-in-class manufacturing capabilities. We welcome this opportunity to evaluate Cellares’ automation production platform for how it potentially could help us reach even more patients with our next-generation therapies.”