Evotec SE announced that the strategic transaction to acquire Rigenerand Srl, signed in May 2022, has been completed. Based out of Medolla, Italy, the cell technology company with leading edge in the field of cGMP manufacturing of cell therapies will operate as Evotec (Modena) Srl going forward.
Cell therapy is a fast-growing and highly promising field of biomedical research with the potential to achieve substantial disease-modifying or even curative effects within a single treatment. Deriving cell therapy products from induced pluripotent stem cells (“iPSCs”) has opened up an almost unlimited source of consistent-quality material for large patient numbers. However, the scalability of the approach from bench to bedside is central for moving cell therapy approaches into clinical phases and thus, essential for the approval of any such therapy.
Evotec’s cell therapy platform EVOcells integrates the full end-to-end spectrum from the discovery and development to the manufacturing of off-the-shelf iPSC-based cell therapy products. With a leading team of cell therapy experts, Evotec (Modena) adds a high-quality cGMP manufacturing site to the EVOcells platform therefore adding capacity, critical expertise and capabilities to the critical scale-up of complex cell-based therapies.
Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, commented: “The Evotec Cell Accelerator gives us the opportunity to take our cell therapy business to the next level. We are extremely confident that this important addition to our EVOcells platform will enable us to progress our internal portfolio of early innovative projects. Further, the addition will allow us to enter new partnerships and support many projects towards clinical applications and onto the market in a very efficient way. This will have a significant impact to a great number of patients who are significantly under-served with the currently available treatment regimens.”
Prof. Massimo Dominici, Scientific Director, Evotec (Modena) and Professor of Oncology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, said: “We are very pleased that the acquisition of Rigenerand has been finalised and the teams have started working together as one. The concept of the Evotec Cell Accelerator is already coming to life and matches what is happening in Modena: enriching the pre-existing know-how through the experienced Evotec team. I am therefore convinced that the field has a new player capable of addressing the challenges of next generation cell therapy products, accelerating their development and manufacturing towards the clinic.”