Oxford Biomedica will keep supplying Novartis with the vectors needed to make Kymriah and other CAR-T products under a five-year deal extension.

The new agreement will see Oxford Biomedica receive $75 million for manufacturing, undisclosed process development payments, a facility reservation fee as well as previously agreed royalties on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) product sales.

The extension deal also requires the firm ensure at least two manufacturing facilities are capable of commercial supply.

Oxford Biomedica will make the vectors at the facility it is setting up in the UK. The 7,800m² plant – plans for which were announced in 2018 – is scheduled to be operational next year.

CEO John Dawson welcomed the extension and stressed the importance of long term supply stability and collaboration.

“We are also pleased to announce that we are now working on five different lentiviral vectors for CAR-T products in the Novartis portfolio and we look forward to helping Novartis to innovate in this exciting therapeutic space”.

Oxford Biomedica has been supplying Novartis with vectors for its CAR-T development and manufacturing problems since 2017.

News of the deal extension comes shortly after Novartis shared details of its efforts to increase Kymriah production capacity.

Speaking at its R&D day last week the firm said the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) it is using in Japan is would achieve “commercial readiness for production” for the product next year.

Vector space

Oxford Biomedica is the sole manufacturer of the lentiviral vector used in Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), which is approved in various markets for the treatment of blood cancers.

The firm also has signed vector-related agreements with Bioverativ – which is a Sanofi company – and Orchard Therapeutics.

In CAR-T, Oxford Biomedica’s vectors are used to introduce genetic material into the cells.

They can deliver large therapeutic payloads of up to 10 kilobases in length according to the firm.

For gene therapies like Orchard Therapeutics ADA-SCID (Severe Combined Immunodeficiency due to Adenosine Deaminase deficiency) treatments, Oxford BioMedica also handles vector manufacturing.