AGC Biologics and Rocket Pharma expand LVV manufacturing partnership

AGC Biologic's Milan facility

The expanded agreement will ensure Rocket Pharma's supply of lentiviral vectors across its pipeline

AGC Biologics will manufacture LVVs at its Center of Excellence for Cell and Gene Therapy services in Milan, Italy, using the 48L Cell Factory Systems and iCellis 500 bioreactor platforms.

AGC Biologics said it has developed a reproducible, high quality and quantity process for the industrial-scale production of LVV in response to customer needs and market demand.

"This process allows for the successful scale of LVV manufacture without affecting critical quality attributes (CQA), ultimately improving the commercial viability of LVV-based gene therapies," the CDMO said.

In February, AGC Biologics announced the expansion of its Milan facility, which it had acquired in July 2020 after its takeover of Italian biotech MolMed, and which was the first GMP facility approved in Europe for ex vivo gene therapy manufacturing.

The company expects to complete the expansion in 2022.