Koch Disruptive Technologies recently led a $255 million Series C funding round in Cellares.
- The California-based cell therapy contract manufacturer is building the world’s first commercial-scale integrated development and manufacturing organization (IDMO) Smart Factory to reach more patients in need.
WHY IT MATTERS: As the first IDMO dedicated to clinical and industrial-scale cell therapy manufacturing, Cellares’ new 118,000-square-foot plant in Bridgewater, New Jersey, will be capable of producing 40,000 cell therapy batches per year – 10 times more than a traditional contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO).
WHY KOCH INVESTED: “Cell therapies have tremendous curative potential across a wide range of diseases. But right now, manufacturing by conventional CDMOs is expensive, failure-prone and impossible to scale,” said David Mauney, managing director of Koch Disruptive Technologies. “Cellares is driving transformation in the marketplace by combining an Industry 4.0 approach with full vertical integration. As the first IDMO, Cellares is empowering cell therapy companies to build viable businesses, remain competitive and meet the needs of fast-growing patient populations.”
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING: “The creation of the first IDMO marks the beginning of a new era, in which cell therapies will finally be able to reach patients in need,” said Cellares CEO Fabian Gerlinghaus. “We've developed integrated technologies for the entire drug development and manufacturing life cycle. Now we're leveraging these technologies to offer global manufacturing services for the living drugs of the 21st century. Our partners are some of the best academics, biotechs and large pharma companies in the world. We're enabling them to meet total patient demand, improve consistency and quality, lower manufacturing costs and accelerate expansion to new markets.”
- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. also participated in the round, along with DFJ Growth, Willett Advisors and existing investors Eclipse, Decheng Capital and 8VC.
WHAT’S NEXT: Cellares’ Technology Adoption Partnership (TAP) program enables participating cell therapy providers to automate and tech-transfer manual processes onto the Cell Shuttle manufacturing platform in just six months, enabling instantaneous transfers across Cellares Smart Factories.
- In addition to the New Jersey facility, it will also break ground on Europe’s first IDMO Smart Factory in 2024. Cellares currently operates two more Smart Factories in the U.S.
GO DEEPER: Read more about the investment on Bloomberg.
