A team comprising Battelle and two Central Ohio biotech startups has won a federal contract to supply the critical scientific and manufacturing support to bring regenerative medicine therapies for neurological disorders to market.
Battelle spinoff AmplifyBio, a contract research organization, and biotech manufacturer Andelyn Biosciences Inc. join the Columbus research giant as one of just three teams that can bid on individual jobs within an eight-year, up to $149 million program of the National Institutes of Health.
"They’re really investing in the latest, breaking, state-of-the-art, life-changing gene and cell therapies,” said Greg Kimmel, vice president and general manager of Battelle’s health business unit. “If we can be part of bringing something like that to market – I think that’s a pretty big deal, even if it’s not something we discovered.
"What it really shows is Central Ohio is a good place for a biotech company to start and thrive."
The contract with the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke essentially created a pre-approved pool of lead contractors able to bid on individual "task orders" out of the initiative. Each one could be a multimillion-dollar job.
For example, to advance development of an experimental therapy for a condition such as Parkinson's disease, the NIH could ask for preclinical studies to determine if it's toxic or if it works on tissue samples – AmplifyBio's wheelhouse – and then for capability to produce the tricky biological components consistently in large enough volumes to use in a clinical trial – Andelyn's specialty. With decades of experience as a federal contractor, Battelle would manage the program and if needed draw on its pool of scientists to develop cellular models or tests.
"It is really playing to everybody’s strengths ," Kimmel said in an interview.
The Central Ohio team has high-powered company: Advanced Bioscience Laboratories, a global contract research organization and biotech manufacturer; and $14 billion publicly traded federal contractor Leidos Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LDOS). Both are based in the Washington, D.C., area.
AmplifyBio, based in West Jefferson with a New Albany lab under construction, spun out of Battelle in May 2021. Andelyn, a spinoff of Nationwide Children's Hospital, opened its manufacturing complex on Ohio State University's west campus last year. They work in different areas of the bench-to-bedside spectrum for cell and gene therapies, with some overlap.
"NINDS recognized, as we do, that we have a strong combined value proposition," Jerry Hacker, AmplifyBio's executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said in written response to questions from Columbus Inno.
"As drug development becomes more highly specialized, having overlapping expertise is not a bad thing; in fact, it makes us more efficient at advancing these complex projects," Hacker said. "These types of collaborations are becoming more and more common in the marketplace, and we are open to the idea of it for commercial contracts when it makes sense for the client.
"Developing collaborative relationships is one of the real advantages of being based and expanding in Central Ohio, a growing advanced therapy hub."
The collaboration fits Andelyn's mission to speed development of treatments for rare inherited diseases, Chief Commercial Officer Eric Blair said in a news release.
The federal program will advance new treatments discovered within the NIH and at research institutions supported by its grants, Kimmel said, helping move technology "out of science fiction and ... into actual therapeutics."
"I do not see us bidding on everything that comes out, but we will look at every one … as a collective team," Kimmel said.
