HQ Team
September 26, 2024: Evotec SE has signed a technology pact with Novo Nordisk to produce cell therapy products for clinical development and commercial use, according to a company statement.
The companies will collaborate on making advanced technologies at its facilities in Göttingen, Germany and at Evotec’s certified cell therapy manufacturing facility in Modena, Italy.
Novo Nordisk will fund the projects that will make “next-generation off-the-shelf cell therapy products,” and it has the option to obtain exclusive rights to utilise the results of the collaboration for a pre-defined therapeutic area, according to the statement.
Evotec, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, would also receive an undisclosed upfront and possible milestone and royalty payments from Novo Nordisk. The company is a publicly listed drug discovery and development firm.
‘Tailor-made therapies’
“Cell therapies have already proven to be highly effective and have the potential to become functional cures in many disease areas,” said Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec.
“Stem cell-based cell therapy is a promising approach to modulate and scale cell therapies to ultimately provide tailor-made, off-the-shelf cell therapies at reasonable costs.”
Cell therapy, replaces a patient’s missing or broken cells with functioning cells from a range of different sources, either from a donor, from the patient’s material, or stem cells.
Evotec’s proprietary and partnered cell types are currently in pre-clinical development for a broad range of indications including diabetes, oncology, cardiology, and ophthalmology.
“By integrating our strengths, we are setting the stage for significant breakthroughs to more efficiently advance our cell therapies,” said Dr Joachim Fruebis, Corporate Vice President, Cell Therapy R&D, at Novo Nordisk.
1,930 clinical studies
The cell therapy manufacturing market is estimated to be worth $4.90 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $13.83 billion by 2035, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 9.90% during the forecast period, till 2035, according to Roots Analysis.
More than 300 cell therapies are currently in clinical development stages. Since 2019, over 1,930 clinical studies focused on such cell therapy candidates have been initiated.
Moreover, several commercialized cell therapies have emerged as top-selling drugs in the healthcare industry. For instance, Gilead Sciences reported that Yescarta has registered annual sales worth over $1.5 billion and Tecartus has reported sales of $370 million.
