Toolgen and Xcell Therapeutics Partner to Streamline Gene Editing Processes 

Gene editing company Toolgen (CEO Kim Young-ho and Lee Byung-hwa) and cell culture media company Xcell Therapeutics (CEO Lee Yi-il) have signed a business agreement aimed at developing customized culture media to improve the efficiency of the gene editing process for cell therapy development.

Based on this MOU, the two companies plan to actively respond to the rapidly growing domestic and international cell therapy market.

"We expect to increase the efficiency of our cell therapy R&D through this research," said Youngho Kim, CEO of Toolgen. "We plan to apply it to cell therapies such as MSCs, CAR-T, and iPSC-CAR-NK to increase the competitiveness of our pipeline."

According to the companies, they plan to secure an optimized gene editing process by combining Toolgen's accumulated gene editing technology with Xcell Therapeutics' extensive cell culture development technology. They also plan to expand the scope of research and development by applying the optimized gene correction process to cultures for various cell therapeutics such as stem cells and immune cells. 

As the clinical development of therapeutic cell and gene modification technologies is expanding, the two companies expect to secure production materials that can be applied to various cell therapy products if the collaboration proceeds successfully.

Dr. Lee Lee, CEO of Xcell Therapeutics, said, "Due to the nature of cell therapies that are directly administered to the human body, securing 'safety' is key. Through our serum-free chemotactic culture medium manufacturing technology, we will contribute to enhancing safety as well as securing price competitiveness of therapeutic products."

Meanwhile, according to global market research firm BIS Research, the global cell and gene therapy market is expected to grow more than tenfold from approximately $1.1 billion (KRW 1.2 trillion) in 2018 to approximately $12 billion (KRW 13.28 trillion) by 2025.

Source : Palm News (http://www.pharmnews.com)