On track at CPHI Barcelona – The Track Sponsor interview: Seqens

In our packed out content sessions at CPHI Barcelona this year, we focus on some of the hottest topics coming up in the pharma industry, with each track sponsored by a leading expert in the field. 

Could you please give an overview of Seqens, your role at the company, and the key priorities for your organisation? 

Seqens is a worldwide leader in the development of APIs and pharmaceutical intermediates. This is our primary business. Our secondary business is as a CDMO. We develop new molecular entities while supporting our customers from big pharma to biotechs. We also have other tertiary activities in personal care and cosmetics, especially developing durable routines and solutions for our customers. We are here at CPHI to promote our API and intermediate offerings, as well as our CDMO business, which has recently grown.  

Seqens is sponsoring CPHI Barcelona’s Future Therapies track. What are some of the therapies of the future and what are some key takeaways from this track? 

The first takeaway is that we have acquired from Novartis a cell and gene therapy called CellforCure, located in France. With this acquisition, we are transforming CellforCure into a pure CDMO for cell and gene therapies. The plant is second to none, a truly one-of-a-kind business. It is a 2200 square metre, fully GMP site with seven production suites. CellforCure successfully manufactures autologous CAR T commercial batches, with a unique real-life experience in cell and gene manufacturing, complemented by its historical cell and gene CDMO background.  

The facility will allow us to propose full packages to our customers, from R&D, production, and regulatory support on a large range of cell types. Cell and gene therapies are an obvious interest for us as an investment; it's a new and fast-growing market with multiple disruptive innovations under pre-clinical and clinical development, especially in oncology and immunology. We are closing the deal with Novartis by the end of 2023 with the strong ambition to be up and ready by January 1, 2024.Our teams are already onboard to connect with future customers!  

CPHI was also a great opportunity to launch our innovative offer called UP. UP ensures API fast-track development in the small molecules arena. UP is composed of four blocks for platforms of custom synthesis and polymerisation. It is a full package we offer to our customers that allows them to speed up their time-to-market for not only new APIs but also existing APIs, improving the API itself, its characteristics, competitiveness, and scalability. Ultimately, it allows customers to decrease the cost and time/access to market for their APIs. 

Cell and gene therapies and vaccine technologies have been a main topic in the pharmaceutical consciousness in recent years. What are some challenges that are limiting broader access to these therapies (manufacturing, distribution etc.)? 

The organisation of the industry as network at the global level is still under development. Preclinical and early phase activity is thriving globally. However, when it comes to late-phase or commercial production, scale-up know-how and capacity are dramatically missing. There are indeed few GMP production sites with phase II/III or commercial, large-scale experience as the learning curve to serve a broad number of patients is steep and long-lasting. We think the research is brilliant but building disruptive therapies is clearly a challenge. Combined with Seqens’ CDMO excellence, CellforCure is one of a few plants in the world who can partner with biotechs, established pharma players, academics, and other CDMOs to develop and bring to patients those cell and gene innovations. 

What does Seqens hope to bring to CPHI Barcelona this year with the Future Therapies track? 

What we hope to bring is a new way to conceive the CDMO business and activities. This means that we are one of the only organisations with a full presence from small molecules to large molecules, and now to cell and gene therapies. We are capable of bringing to our customers a continuity of technologies across a large spectrum of compounds. This is very important because we believe that the combination of technologies and the combination of sciences will make the solutions of tomorrow.  

How do events like CPHI Barcelona accelerate these track fields in the wider industry? 

For us, CPHI in Europe is once a year, and you have an absolutely unique opportunity to meet with your customers, your prospects, and your partners, as well as to see the trends of the industry. For all of us, it’s a unique time where you need to be present. It’s a very good occasion to discover new offerings, such as Seqens with their two new offerings in the cell and gene therapies market and UP.