GC Cell said it signed a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) agreement with UCI Therapeutics for the production of CAR-NK cell gene therapies.

Founded in 2020, UCI Therapeutics is a biotech venture developing CAR-NK immune cell therapies based on NK cell engineering technology via gene introduction. CAR-NK, a next-generation immune-oncology cell therapy combining chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) with natural killer (NK) cells, is designed to target cancer cells specifically.

UCI Therapeutics' strategy includes the development of bispecific CAR and the proprietary “CellTaCT” platform to overcome the limitations of existing combination therapies.

GC Cell specializes in CDMO services for cell therapies, offering a one-stop total solution for cell gene therapy production, including process and analytical method development for cell gene therapies, production of media and raw materials for advanced biopharmaceuticals, GMP-compliant quality analysis services, production for clinical trials/commercialization stages, long-term storage and logistics services for advanced biopharmaceuticals.

Under this accord, GC Cell will handle the manufacturing, storage, and quality testing of UCI Therapeutics' pipeline drugs for the next four years, including an 18-month stability test. This long-term partnership will also involve development tasks for certain processes.

“Through this partnership with GC Cell, which has both immune cell therapy development and contract development and manufacturing experience, we can expedite the clinical entry of our leading pipeline,” UCI Therapeutics CEO Jung Soo-young said. “We look forward to establishing a stable commercialization foundation through continued collaboration, aiming to become a leading group in the domestic CAR-NK cell therapy market.”

GC Cell CEO James Park also said, “We believe that our extensive know-how in NK cell process development and CDMO expertise will accelerate the development of UCI Therapeutics' cell gene therapy drugs.”

Through this partnership, GC Cell aims to complement each other's advanced biopharmaceutical R&D and production capabilities to create synergy, Park added.