Roche has expanded its partnership with SQZ Biotechnologies to codevelop therapeutics derived from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in a deal worth up to $1 billion. In 2015, Swiss Biopharma Roche partnered with SQZ to use its B cell engineering technology in the development of cell therapies for cancer. This week, the firm has expanded the partnership to jointly develop and commercialize products based on antigen presenting cells (APCs) created by the SQZ platform. “SQZ entered into a first collaboration…

Cell therapy CDMO MaSTherCell will produce late-stage clinical supply of an adoptive cell therapy for Iovance Biotherapeutics from its facility in Belgium. Iovance has selected MaSTherCell S.A., a cellular therapy-focused contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and subsidiary of Orgenesis, to manufacture an adoptive cell therapy using its tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) product as it goes into late-stage trials in Europe. The manufacturing will take place from MaSTherCell’s plant based in Belgium, which according to a spokesperson from the CDMO…