Aldevron Announces Agreement with Ziopharm Oncology for neoGMP® Production of Sleeping Beauty Plasmid DNA to Express TCRs for Treatment of Solid Tumors

FARGO, N.D.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aldevron, a leading provider of products and services for the biotechnology industry, today announced an agreement with Ziopharm Oncology to produce plasmid DNA for T cell therapy of solid tumors. Aldevron has developed the neoGMP^® service level designed to address this new and rapidly growing market.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Ziopharm Oncology on their innovative approach to expressing T cell receptors (TCRs) using the Sleeping Beauty non-viral gene transfer system,” said Michael Chambers, Aldevron CEO. “Plasmid DNA is a key component in this process and Aldevron’s 22 years of experience enabled us to develop the neoGMP service to support this exciting area of personalized cancer treatment.”

“Our strategic collaboration with Aldevron is an important part of our TCR-T therapy, as we advance our clinical programs for solid tumors targeting neoantigens,” said Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Ziopharm Oncology. “The rapid production of clinical-grade DNA plasmids expressing TCRs within the Sleeping Beauty system will help us achieve our goals of infusing genetically modified T cells to patients with solid tumors.”

Under the agreement Ziopharm, based on their analyses of patient tumors, will identify TCRs on a patient-by-patient basis as well as assemble TCRs in a library for use in clinical trials. The company will use Aldevron’s neoGMP service to manufacture multiple DNA plasmids in an expedient, cost-effective manner.

For more information on Aldevron’s neoGMP service please visit aldevron.com/neoGMP.

About Aldevron

Aldevron serves the biotechnology industry with custom production of nucleic acids, proteins, and antibodies. Thousands of clients use Aldevron-produced plasmids, RNA and gene editing enzymes for projects ranging from research grade to clinical trials to commercial applications. Aldevron specializes in GMP manufacturing and is known for inventing the GMP-Source® quality system. Company headquarters are in Fargo, N.D., with additional facilities in Madison, Wisc., and Freiburg, Germany.

About Ziopharm Oncology

Ziopharm is developing non-viral and cytokine-driven cell and gene therapies that weaponize the body’s immune system to treat the millions of people globally diagnosed with a solid tumor each year. With its multiplatform approach, Ziopharm is at the forefront of immuno-oncology with a goal to treat any type of solid tumor. Ziopharm’s pipeline is built for commercially scalable, cost effective T cell receptor T cell therapies based on its non-viral Sleeping Beauty gene transfer platform, a precisely controlled IL-12 gene therapy, and rapidly manufactured Sleeping Beauty-enabled CD19-specific CAR-T program. The Company has clinical and strategic partnerships with the National Cancer Institute, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and others. For more information, please visit www.ziopharm.com.