University of Pennsylvania, Center for Breakthrough Medicines to develop gene therapies

The University of Pennsylvania’s Gene Therapy Program (GTP) and Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM), an integrated cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization, recently signed a renewable five-year agreement to develop gene therapies.

The goal is to decrease the development costs, timelines, and manufacturing, which will increase the accessibility of life-changing treatments for patients.

Under the agreement, CBM will have exclusive commercial rights to certain GTP gene therapy manufacturing platforms, advanced analytics, and any future process or analytical improvements achieved through the collaboration. The university will receive access to a planned 700,000-square-foot manufacturing facility.

“Our collaboration with the GTP at Penn will allow CBM the ability to offer accelerated gene therapy manufacturing services under one roof regardless of where a program is in its development timeline,” Joerg Ahlgrimm, CBM president and CEO, said. “With this access to GTP’s gene therapy production expertise, CBM becomes an appealing manufacturing partner with a differentiated offering. We will offer the best of an academic vector core (speed to clinic) and commercial CDMO (commercially viable process) combined.”

Gene therapies are used to treat and cure rare and nonrare hematological, ophthalmic, musculoskeletal, and neurologic diseases such as hemophilia and Huntington’s disease.