Johns Hopkins Medicine is collaborating with Germantown biotech Orgenesis to create a facility that will expand the institution's ability to manufacture cell and gene therapy drugs.
The new Maryland Center for Cell Therapy Manufacturing will allow Hopkins to manufacture more drugs in Baltimore for clinical trials and treatment, instead of outsourcing the work to third-party labs.
“We have a lot of investigators who are very interested in developing and manufacturing their novel therapies, and this new space will provide us with the equipment and expertise to meet their needs,” Victor Lemas, director of the cell therapy laboratory at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said in a statement. “Having Orgenesis on campus provides an opportunity for the investigator to closely collaborate with the Orgenesis experts to accurately translate cell therapy innovations from the laboratories to the patient clinics.”
The clinical therapeutic development and point of care center will be around 7,000 square feet and be located at Johns Hopkins' East Baltimore medical campus, according to a press release. When the facility is completed by 2023, 30 Orgenesis employees will work in Baltimore. Researchers from other universities and companies, such as the University of Maryland, will also be able to use the facility, Orgenesis CEO Vered Caplan said. The state of Maryland approved a $5 million grant to assist with construction.
"I'm really hoping this will grow to be a very central cell and gene therapy hub," Caplan told the Baltimore Business Journal. "It will bring a lot of employment to the area, additional biotech companies working out of it, we really want to be a catalysts for the whole industry in this region."
Cell therapy works by taking immune cells, such as T cells, and reprograming them so they have an antibody that can attack diseases such as cancer. The therapies can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient, since each drug is tailor-made for a specific individual from their own cells. Doctors and researchers develop drugs themselves, but it can be difficult without the specialized knowledge and equipment of a drug manufacturer, Caplan said.
"Clinicians and doctors aren't meant to be industrial manufacturers," she said.
Orgenesis is currently using lab space at FastForward, the Johns Hopkins Technologies Ventures innovation hub, for gene therapy manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region. Once the point of care facility is set up, the company plans to place an Orgenesis Mobile Processing Units and Lab at Hopkins to help reduce production costs through a decentralized model. The mobile unit allows for some automation of the drug creation process, which furthers saves costs, Caplan said.
"The whole industry is stuck around industrial issues," Caplan said. "JHU has a tremendous need to expand that capacity because they are such a wonderful research institution and have so many researchers developing drugs."
Orgenesis first announced plans for the new center in January and recently raised $14.8 million through a securities purchase agreement made on March 30. Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission listed two purchasers, Faldi Ismail who purchased $13.8 million worth of shares and warrants, and Ricky Newman, who purchased $1 million worth of shares and warrants. Orgenesis would not disclose what the funds would be used for. The company's revenue has expanded greatly in recent years from $6.1 million in 2020, to $31.6 million in 2021.
Orgenesis currently has subsidies in places such as Korea, Israel and Germany.
