Servier, a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, has signed a master service agreement with Manufacturing Synergies for Therapeutic Cells (MaSTherCell), a Brussels, Belgium-based contract development and manufacturing organization, for the development of a manufacturing platform for allogeneic cell therapies.

Under the agreement, MaSTherCell will develop a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy manufacturing platform to enable industrial and commercial manufacturing of Servier cell-therapy products. MaSTherCell anticipates completing the development of the initial CAR-T platform in 2018, which will be incorporated into the antibody production facilities that Servier is developing at its site in Gidy, France.

Servier’s lead product is UCART-19, an allogeneic CAR T-cell product candidate for treating CD19-expressing hematological malignancies. Servier has two clinical trials currently ongoing in Europe in relapsed or refractory B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Servier acquired the exclusive rights to UCART19 in November 2015 from Cellectis, a Paris-headquartered biopharmaceutical company. Following further agreements, Servier began collaborating with Pfizer on a joint clinical development program for this drug candidate. Pfizer has exclusive rights from Servier to develop and commercialize UCART19 in the US while Servier retains exclusive rights for all other countries.

Source: Servier