Bone Therapeutics invests in cell therapy manufacturing facility
New Belgian plant should be fully operational by 2015
Bone Therapeutics, a Belgian biopharmaceutical company focused on cell therapy products for the treatment of bone diseases, has secured its future manufacturing requirements, allowing it to produce its unique bone cell therapy products on a commercial scale.
The company has made an investment in Skeletal Cell Therapy Support (SCTS), together with the Walloon region and private investors, to fund the €10m construction of a new manufacturing facility on the Gosselies Scientific Park near Brussels, Belgium. It says the building cost is fully secured in equal parts in equity, loans from ING and BNP Paribas Fortis and subsidies from the Walloon Region.
Bone Therapeutics now has a 49.9% share in SCTS, which will manage the construction and run the new plant once operational.
The investment will allow Bone Therapeutics to manufacture Preob, the firm’s autologous bone cell therapy product that is currently in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of osteonecrosis, under GMP conditions.
Securing access to these state-of-the-art facilities is in line with Bone Therapeutics’ strategy to become a successful commercial stage company
The construction of the new facility will also provide SCTS customers with state-of-the-art facilities tailored to meet the specific demands of the cell therapy industry and deliver long-term operational and financial efficiencies, with an improved manufacturing process at an increased scale. The completed production unit will initially include six class B production cells across 1,950m2 and will be able to produce up to 5,000 batches each year. In addition, 1,300m2 will be dedicated to quality control and research activities.
Once completed in 2015, Bone Therapeutics will be headquartered at the facility.
Enrico Bastianelli, Chief Executive Officer of Bone Therapeutics, said: ‘Securing access to these state-of-the-art facilities is in line with Bone Therapeutics’ strategy to become a successful commercial stage company and to support the potential commercialisation of our lead product Preob, which is now ready for manufacturing and scale up. This is a great opportunity for Bone Therapeutics and we look forward to moving our operations into the brand new state-of-the-art facilities.’
Bone Therapeutics is also developing an allogeneic bone cell therapy product called Allob, which is expected to enter the clinic this year, and MXB, a combined cell-matrix product for the treatment of large bone defects, currently in preclinical development.
