The cell and gene therapy industry is at a global inflection point says Lonza as it teams with logistics firm Vineti to remove the supply chain hurdles affecting the space.

The non-exclusive partnership will see contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Lonza incorporate Vineti’s real-time end-to-end supply chain platform into its cell and gene therapy offering.

“The Vineti and Lonza partnership is a preferred business collaboration to drive manufacturing efficiencies in the C&GT [cell and gene therapy] manufacturing process by integrating the Vineti Personalized Therapy Management Platform with the Lonza Orchestrate capacity management system,” Alberto Santagostino, SVP head of Cell & Gene Technologies at Lonza Pharma & Biotech told Bioprocess Insider.

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Logistics firm Vineti was founded in 2016 and according to Santagostino shares several customers with Lonza, giving the CDMO the opportunity to get to know each other’s companies and systems.

The partnership will roll out in two phases, with a focus on geographic expansion, he explained. The first phase will focus on integrating the Vineti Platform with Lonza’s MODA Manufacturing Execution System (MES) at its North America sites.

“After the initial North America integration, the focus will expand to global access, enabling the shared solution for supply chain management and manufacturing capacity optimization from having a single entry point across all of Lonza’s global sites.”

Lonza has cell and gene therapy manufacturing capabilities in Texas, US and two sites in The Netherlands, added through the acquisition of PharmaCell in 2017.

Vein-to-vein

According to Santagostino, this partnership will help bring optimization and standardization to its cell and gene therapy manufacturing and “is a key part of a wider goal for Lonza to create a network of partnerships and capabilities that enable a seamless, ‘vein-to-vein’ delivery of autologous cell and gene therapies for its customers and their patients.”

He added: “Lonza aims to remove the supply-chain hurdles faced by autologous and matched-allogeneic drug developers as they prepare for the clinical-phase success and commercial launch of their therapies.”

The phrase ‘vein-to-vein’ is becoming more common in cell and gene therapy parlance. It is the process in which personalized cell and gene therapies are produced, with each manufacturing run being personalized to the patient and donors, providing the essential components of the supply chain.

“The cell and gene therapy industry is at a global inflection point, with a need to mature and industrialize to grow and deliver on its potential,” said Santagostino, adding these autologous and allogeneic therapies and personalized cancer vaccines have the potential to revolutionize healthcare.

“Overall, the cell and gene therapy supply chain is complex – involving patients, healthcare providers, sponsors, pharma companies, white glove couriers and CDMOs. It has a lot of moving parts and carries certain inherent risks that come with the complexity.”

Thus, he said, partnerships like that with Vineti aims to simplify various parts of the supply chain.