Company of the week: Cellares
Today, we're highlighting Cellares, a trailblazer in the cell therapy industry that's making treatment more accessible and efficient. As the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO), Cellares is creating waves in the medical field by taking an Industry 4.0 approach to mass manufacturing the "living drugs" of the 21st century.
Cellares has designed the Cell Shuttle, an all-encompassing platform that automates the entire manufacturing process for cell therapies. These Cell Shuttles are integrated into the company's Smart Factories around the world, offering high-throughput and end-to-end automation performing a wide-variety of protocols including enrichment, buffer exchange, concentration, sampling, in-process QC, selection, activation, transduction, transfection, expansion, and formulation. With this technology, Cellares aims to lower manufacturing costs, reduce process failure rates, and, most importantly, accelerate access to life-saving therapies.
The integrated consumable cartridge reduces process failure rates by 75%.
65% reduction in average manufacturing costs.
Headquartered in South San Francisco and a commercial-scale IDMO Smart Factory in Bridgewater, New Jersey, the company is on a mission to meet global patient demand for life-saving cell therapies. The Bridgewater facility alone is a 118,000-square-foot marvel capable of producing an astounding 40,000 cell therapy batches annually, which is a tenfold increase in productivity compared to conventional Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) facilities!
Through the Cellares TAP program, academic institutions, biotech companies, and pharmaceutical giants can transition their manual processes to the automated Cell Shuttle platform in just six months.
Recently, Cellares secured a whopping $255 million in Series C financing, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies and with significant participation from Bristol Myers Squibb, DFJ, Willett Advisors LLC, and other existing investors. This financial backing will accelerate their mission and pave the way for global access to cell therapies.
We send our heartfelt gratitude and congratulations to founders Fabian Gerlinghaus and Omar Kurdi along with the whole team at Cellares for their groundbreaking work! 🙏 Kudos to my colleague Anna Sahakyan, PhD on becoming a scientist with this wonderful company!
