Cellares Announces Agreement with Kite to Evaluate Its Cell Shuttle Automated Manufacturing Platform

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cellares, the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) dedicated to clinical and industrial-scale cell therapy manufacturing, today announced that Kite, a Gilead Company, will evaluate Cellares’ automated manufacturing platform, the Cell Shuttle. The data generated in this proof-of-concept evaluation will be utilized to assess viability of the Cell Shuttle as a future manufacturing option for Kite.

“This agreement with Kite allows the unique capabilities of our Cell Shuttle platform to be potentially utilized by Kite in the future, and reinforces Cellares' position as a cell therapy manufacturer with advanced automated technology," said Fabian Gerlinghaus, CEO and Co-Founder of Cellares. "We aim to fully automate all cell therapy manufacturing processes, moving us closer to delivering CAR T-cell therapies for a wide range of autoimmune diseases and cancers. We are honored to work with an industry leader such as Kite, that already is serving patients worldwide with two commercially approved cell therapies."

“Given that manufacturing is central to how we deliver CAR T-cell therapies to physicians and patients, we are always assessing what technologies could further enhance our best-in-class manufacturing capabilities,” said Chris McDonald, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Technical Operations, Kite. “We welcome this opportunity to evaluate Cellares’ automation production platform for how it potentially could help us reach even more patients with our next-generation therapies.”

About Cellares

Cellares is the first Integrated Development and Manufacturing Organization (IDMO) that takes an Industry 4.0 approach to mass manufacturing the living drugs of the 21st century. The company is both developing and operating integrated technologies for cell therapy manufacturing to accelerate access to life-saving cell therapies. The company’s Cell Shuttle integrates all the technologies required for the manufacturing process in a flexible and high-throughput platform that delivers true walk-away, end-to-end automation. Cell Shuttles will be deployed in Cellares’ Smart Factories around the world to meet total patient demand for cell therapies at a global scale. Partnering with Cellares enables academics, biotechs, and pharma companies to accelerate drug development and scale out manufacturing, lower process failure rates, lower manufacturing costs, and meet global patient demand.

The company is headquartered in South San Francisco, California with its commercial-scale IDMO Smart Factory in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The company is backed by world-class investors and has raised over $355 million in financing.

For more information about Cellares, please visit cellares.com.