The Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM) and the University of Pennsylvania’s Gene Therapy Program (GTP) have signed a landmark collaboration agreement, to combine Penn’s knowledge and expertise in the development of gene therapies with CBM’s manufacturing capacity and singular focus on advanced therapies.
This partnership is focused on moving therapeutics safely and rapidly from concept to clinic by connecting certain of Penn’s established gene therapy platforms with CBM’s manufacturing and analytical capacity. This combination will allow small biotech firms, universities, and large pharmaceutical companies to advance gene therapies from discovery to First-In-Human (FIH) studies with the potential for less risk and expense. By utilizing Penn’s gene therapy expertise, which has already been applied to numerous commercially sponsored clinical programs and avoiding the typical capital-intensive infrastructure builds associated with gene therapy manufacturing, gene therapy developers will be able to enter the field sooner and with less risk with confidence that this platform is scalable for later clinical stages and commercialization.