Construction of the facility is a key milestone and represents a critical next step in bringing effective and accessible CAR T therapies to cancer patients, as well as in how those therapies are produced, stored, and distributed, it said.
Andy Scharenberg, cofounder and CEO, Umoja, said the facility will substantially enhance its vector manufacturing, process development, and formulation capabilities.
“With this facility and Umoja’s unique, integrated approach, we are rethinking the supply chain of CAR T therapies from the ground up, eliminating costly and time-consuming steps to streamline the process and ultimately make treatments more accessible,” commented Ryan Crisman, co-founder and CTO.
The site will house labs, offices, and manufacturing space for lentiviral vector production, with the first manufacturing run of clinical material expected to kick off in the first quarter of 2023.
Umoja said it has made significant progress in advancing its programs and bringing key hires on board to prepare for its next rapid phase of development and growth, since its launch in November last year.
Investment, clinical development
In June, the company, which was founded based on work performed at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Purdue University, closed a $210m Series B financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Cormorant Asset Management.
As well as using the financing to build the manufacturing capabilities at the site in Colorado, Umoja said the capital would also help it advance its in-vivo CAR T-cell immunotherapies: TumorTag UB-TT170 for folate receptor-expressing solid tumors and VivoVec UB-VV100 for CD19-positive hematological cancers.