ElevateBio, a newcomer to the cell and gene therapy sector, is taking a different approach than the competition. Founded only months ago in early 2019, the company plans to aggregate a portfolio of cell and gene therapy companies that will develop, manufacture and commercialize life-transforming medicines.
It has launched with an unusual business model, which is to be a hybrid CDMO for cell and gene therapy companies, as well as an investment holding company. It will accomplish this feat by offering “R&D and cGMP manufacturing facilities to be shared across several portfolio companies, each with a different disease focus.”
Key to ElevateBio’s plan is the construction of an R&D and cGMP manufacturing facility in Cambridge, MA, that it calls BaseCamp. The complex will act as a centralized research and manufacturing group to support a portfolio of promising cell and gene therapy companies, each which will have a different disease focus.
ElevateBio’s BaseCamp
ElevateBio’s BaseCamp is being constructed as a 100,000 square-foot CDMO facility in Waltham, MA. Because the facility will manufacture experimental gene and cell therapies for several portfolio companies at once, it will allow for cost-savings related to scale.
In addition to providing manufacturing support, ElevateBio will act as a holding company that will invest in these companies. The first holding company that ElevateBio has announced is AlloVir, who announced only days ago that it received an RMAT designation from the U.S. FDA. The RMAT was given for AlloVir’s lead allogeneic, off-the-shelf, multi-virus specific T-cell therapy, Viralym-M (ALVR105).
To date, Elevate Bio has raised $150 million, supported by UBS Oncology Impact Fund and F2 Ventures.
To learn about other companies developing cell and gene therapies, view the “Global Regenerative Medicine Industry Database.”
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