Orgenesis (NASDAQ:ORGS) Inc announced the next phase of collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, which involves the construction of a cell and gene therapy processing facility for point of care (POC) treatment of patients at Johns Hopkins.
Construction work is planned to start in the second quarter of 2022 and the facility is expected to be operational in 2Q 2023.
The construction of the new POCare Center, also known as the Maryland Center for Cell Therapy Manufacturing, has been funded in part by a $5 million grant from the State of Maryland, Orgenesis (NASDAQ:ORGS) said.
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“The state is pleased to support this project with a $5 million grant to assist with construction," said Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. "With the current demands on the healthcare industry, we are acutely aware of the need to continue to position Maryland in the forefront of biomedical advancements."
He added: "This center will help develop innovative new therapies to improve the lives of patients for years to come."
The Maryland-based company said that the new state-of-the-art 7,000-square-foot facility has been designed to meet US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards and provides Johns Hopkins clinicians and researchers with a more streamlined path to treat patients and take promising and novel treatments from the lab to patient trials.
This path will enable local capacity for processing of clinical therapeutics at the point of care, rather than having to outsource clinical trial cell and gene therapy manufacturing to third parties.
“These international partnerships are now experiencing significant investment and construction across the globe to build on the achievements within the Network, as illustrated by our expanded collaboration with Johns Hopkins,” said Vered Caplan, CEO of Orgenesis (NASDAQ:ORGS) in a statement. “The POC Center at Johns Hopkins will help propel the development of therapies targeting a range of conditions that directly affect the lives of millions of patients.”
In addition, the establishment of the new POCare Center will enable rapid scale-up of additional processing capacity through connecting and servicing Orgenesis mobile processing units and labs (OMPULs), the company said.
OMPULs shorten the implementation time of new capacity from 18-24 months to 3-6 months. Each POCare Center can service multiple OMPULS. The first OMPUL in Maryland is expected to deploy in 2H 2022.
Orgenesis said it currently plans to base 30 of its own employees on the site when it is completed. It is already using lab space at FastForward, Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures’ (JHTV) innovation hub, as the acting POCare Center for the Mid-Atlantic Region.
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