Lonza Group Ltd. in Switzerland and Octane Biotech Inc. in Canada have agreed to enter into an exclusive technology evaluation of the Octane Cocoonâ„¢ cell production platform for personalized cell therapy manufacturing with the goal of a global deployment of this groundbreaking innovation. Unlike current, labor-intensive production methods, the Octane Cocoon has the potential to enable the automated manufacturing of patient-specific cell therapies for maximum efficiency, traceability and scale-up. Under the terms of the agreement, Lonza will evaluate the Octane…

Caladrius Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:CLBS), a cell therapy leader with a late-stage clinical program for immuno-oncology, announced today the dosing of the first patient in the Intus Phase 3 clinical trial. The Intus trial is investigating the efficacy of the Company’s patient-specific targeted cancer immunotherapy candidate CLBS20 (also known as NBS20). The trial is studying CLBS20 in patients with stage III recurrent or stage IV metastatic melanoma. The patient was dosed (with either CLBS20 or control, in accordance with the randomized,…