Aldevron Announces Agreement with Ziopharm Oncology

Aldevron announced an agreement with Ziopharm Oncology to produce plasmid DNA for T cell therapy of solid tumors. Aldevron has developed the neoGMP service level designed to address this new and rapidly growing market.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Ziopharm Oncology on their innovative approach to expressing T cell receptors (TCRs) using the Sleeping Beauty non-viral gene transfer system,” said Michael Chambers, Aldevron CEO. “Plasmid DNA is a key component in this process and Aldevron’s 22 years of experience enabled us to develop the neoGMP service to support this exciting area of personalized cancer treatment.”

“Our strategic collaboration with Aldevron is an important part of our TCR-T therapy, as we advance our clinical programs for solid tumors targeting neoantigens,” said Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Ziopharm Oncology. “The rapid production of clinical-grade DNA plasmids expressing TCRs within the Sleeping Beauty system will help us achieve our goals of infusing genetically modified T cells to patients with solid tumors.”

Under the agreement Ziopharm, based on their analyses of patient tumors, will identify TCRs on a patient-by-patient basis as well as assemble TCRs in a library for use in clinical trials. The company will use Aldevron’s neoGMP service to manufacture multiple DNA plasmids in an expedient, cost-effective manner.