Resilience will acquire Bluebird’s North Carolina lentiviral vector manufacturing facility for $110 million, kickstarting an alliance to drive R&D and cell therapy production. Under the terms of the deal, Resilience will acquire Bluebird’s 125,000 square-foot manufacturing plant in Durham, North Carolina, which it only opened two years ago after acquiring the facility in November 2017 and investing $80 million in the site. Bluebird will receive the $110 million upfront and have preferred lentiviral vector (LVV) production access. The firm claims…

Mithra Pharmaceuticals will provide fill-finish services for ExeVir, which is developing a llama-derived antibody therapy to treat and prevent COVID-19. The deal, of which no financial details have been disclosed, will see contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) Mithra utilize its fill-finish capabilities for ExeVir’s candidate, XVR011. XVR011 is a single domain-based anti-COVID-19 antibody. It is derived from llama antibodies, which are smaller than human antibodies and therefore can attach to parts of a virus that are hard to access for…

Korean CDMO Samsung Biologics will develop and provide manufacturing services to support IND filing for Kineta’s anti-VISTA antibody candidate. Contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) Samsung Biologics has signed a partnership agreement to provide end-to-end services for Kineta’s anti-V-domain immunoglobulin suppressor of T cell activation (anti-VISTA) candidate KVA12.1, which aims to treat solid tumors. Preclinical studies have shown KVA12.1 to have single agent anti-tumor activity and that targeting VISTA along with programmed cell death-1 (PD-1), PD ligand 1 (PD-L1), or cytotoxic…

BioNTech ups its production capacity to support cell therapy clinical trials by acquiring Kite’s R&D platform and gaining a facility in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The deal, of which financial details have not been disclosed, sees BioNTech acquire Gilead Sciences’ Kite Pharma’s solid tumor neoantigen T cell receptor (TCR) R&D technology. The deal will also see BioNTech take over the lease at the Gaithersburg manufacturing facility. BioNTech became a household name after BNT162b2 became the first messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine to…

Selexis and KBI will provide integrated services to develop Immatics’ bispecific T cell engaging receptor program. Selexis will leverage its SUREtechnology to produce a clonal cell line for Immatics’ candidate IMA402 and KBI Biopharma will utilize its formulation, analytics, and manufacturing capabilities. No financial details have been disclosed. “Selexis and KBI are both JSR Life Sciences companies and are able offer partners integrated services that can accelerate biologic development timelines,” CEO of both companies Dirk Lange told BioProcess Insider. “These…