January 21, 2020 – Hitachi Chemical Advanced Therapeutics Solutions, LLC (HCATS), a US subsidiary of Hitachi Chemical Co. Ltd. that engages in contract manufacturing and manufacturing development of cell therapy products, and Ori Biotech Ltd. (Ori), an innovator in cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing, today announced they have entered into a joint development agreement to develop and commercialize technology solutions specific to the cell and gene therapy industry. Combining HCATS’ decades of experience in manufacturing and development with Ori Biotech’s proprietary technology platform and innovative approach allows both parties to better address the increasingly critical manufacturing needs of cell and gene therapy developers.
“We are very excited to announce our collaboration with Ori Biotech,” said Robert Preti, Ph.D., President and CEO HCATS, General Manager, Regenerative Medicine Business Sector, Hitachi Chemical. “Using our 20 years of manufacturing experience to help advance Ori’s novel technology furthers our leadership in addressing the industry’s manufacturing challenges and accelerates the process of delivering our clients’ therapeutics to patients in need. We look forward to partnering with Ori and are confident this collaboration will help drive innovation throughout the industry.”
“Our partnership with HCATS provides us an exciting opportunity to further develop and tailor our innovative CGT manufacturing platform technology for use in the real world,” said Jason C. Foster, CEO of Ori Biotech. “Leveraging HCATS longstanding experience in cell and gene therapy manufacturing helps us progress our technology much faster than we could on our own as we both work to bring the next generation of manufacturing solutions to market. Partnering with such a renowned and experienced contract manufacturer will help demonstrate the potential of our platform to address the significant challenges in large-scale production of these life-saving therapies.”
About Hitachi Chemical Advanced Therapeutics Solutions
Hitachi Chemical Advanced Therapeutics Solutions, LLC (HCATS, formerly PCT Cell Therapy Services, LLC), is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Chemical Company, Ltd. (Hitachi Chemical) representing Hitachi Chemical’s Regenerative Medicine Business Sector in the United States. HCATS leverages two decades of experience exclusively focused on the cell therapy industry. It provides contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) services at current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) standards, including clinical manufacturing, commercial manufacturing, and manufacturing development. Facilities to deliver these services have been established in New Jersey and California, with an expansion to add commercial manufacturing capabilities and capacity underway in New Jersey. Furthermore, the Hitachi Chemical Regenerative Medicine Business Sector includes capabilities in Asia (Yokohama, Japan) and Europe (Munich, Germany). For more information about these services, please visitwww.pctcelltherapy.com
About Ori Biotech
Ori Biotech is a London- and Philadelphia-based CGT manufacturing technology company. Ori has developed a proprietary, flexible manufacturing platform that closes, automates and standardises manufacturing allowing therapeutics developers to further develop and bring their products from pre-clinical process development to commercial scale manufacturing.
The mission of the Ori platform is to fully automate CGT manufacturing to increase throughput, improve quality and decrease costs in order to enable patient access to this new generation of lifesaving treatments. Founded by Dr Farlan Veraitch and Prof Chris Mason in 2015, the Company has brought together a seasoned Board and executive management team with over 80 years of pharmaceutical, cell therapy and venture building experience including CEO Jason C. Foster (Indivior) and CBO Jason Jones (Miltenyi Biotec) alongside industry-leading expert advisors like Bruce Levine and Anthony Davies.