Cell therapy weekly: Ring Therapeutics secures US$86.5 million to create next generation programmable medicines
This week: Genezen Announces new CEO, Consulting firm and CDMO partner to advance cell and gene therapy development and commercialization and Ring Therapeutics secures US$86.5 million to create next-generation programmable medicines.
The news highlights:
Genezen Announces new CEO
Genezen (IN, USA), a contract development and manufacturing organization specializing in the manufacture of lentiviral and retroviral vectors, has appointed Steven J Favaloro as President and CEO. Favaloro has held executive positions at Arbor Biotechnologies (MA, USA), Arranta Bio (MA, USA) and Brammer Bio (part of Thermo Fisher Scientific; MA, USA).
Founder and Executive Chairman of Genezen, Bill Vincent, stated: “Steve’s track record in the CDMO market – particularly in viral vector and cell and gene therapy companies – speaks for itself and will be extraordinarily valuable in spearheading Genezen’s ambitious growth plan. We know that 2023 will be a pivotal year for the company, and with Steve’s experience and vision, there is tremendous confidence that we will achieve our goal to be a leading choice of CDMO in this sector.”
Consulting firm and CDMO partner to advance cell and gene therapy development and commercialization
Cell One Partners (NY, USA) has announced a strategic partnership with the Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM; PA, USA) to accelerate the development and commercialization of cell and gene therapies. Cell One Partners is a strategic consulting firm focused exclusively on cell and gene therapy and regenerative medicine and CBM is a cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization providing single-source, end-to-end solutions.
The partnership combines CBM’s technologies, capabilities and capacity for cell and gene therapy development and manufacture with Cell One Partners’ strategic vision, virtual executive leadership and program management.
“The missions of our two organizations are aligned – to advance cell and gene therapy research from idealization to commercialization in an effort to save lives,” said Jennifer Manning, Senior Vice President of Global Strategic Partnerships at CBM. “A strategic partnership with Cell One Partners provides CGT developers access to Cell One Partners’ virtual C-Suite executives and strategic advisors and access to CBM’s expansive capacity, breadth of CGT technologies, R&D, process development and GMP manufacturing expertise, allowing innovators to focus on research, extend cash runway, simplify a complex supply chain, and accelerate the development and manufacturing of their therapies.”
Ring Therapeutics secures US$86.5 million to create next-generation programmable medicines
Ring Therapeutics (MA, USA), a company developing a novel vector platform by harnessing the human commensal virome, has raised US$86.5 million in Series C funding. All of Ring’s existing institutional stakeholders participated in this round of investment, as well as Ring’s founder, Flagship Pioneering (MA, USA) and Alexandria Venture Investments (CA, USA), Altitude Life Science Ventures (WA, USA), CJ Investment (Seoul, South Korea), Invus (London, UK), Kyowa Kirin Co. Ltd (Tokyo, Japan), and others.
Avak Kahvejian, Co-Founder and Chairman of Ring and General Partner at Flagship Pioneering, commented: “By harnessing the human commensal virome, Ring’s unique approach has been a true disruption of the genetic medicine space and offers the opportunity to generate a plethora of novel vectors with tissue-specific tropism and the potential to be redosed. We appreciate the continued support of our current investors and are excited to welcome the support of this new group of investors as we take our next strides toward creating programmable medicines that have the potential to so widely impact human health.”