SAN DIEGO—Cytiva has launched its Sefia next-generation manufacturing platform, with the goal of helping drug developers and larger healthcare providers accelerate their production of chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapies and other cell-based treatments, at lower cost. Kite, a Gilead company, partnered with Cytiva to develop Sefia, through a collaboration that combined Cytiva’s R&D and manufacturing expertise with Kite’s experience as the developer of two leading CAR T therapies, Yescarta® (axicabtagene ciloleucel) and Tecartus® (brexucabtagene autoleucel). “We’ve learned a lot during this year and accumulated the experience of thousands of patients that had been treated thanks to our platform,” Emmanuel Abate, Cytiva’s president, genomic medicine, told in an interview held during the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) International Convention, held at the San Diego Convention Center.
“We know that there are still some significant challenges that need to be addressed: How to improve consistency of manufacturing? How do we help our customers reduce the cost of manufacturing? How do you help your customers scale up? Because we know that with the number of patients that are being treated, infrastructure is a true challenge for CAR T providers. That’s really what we had in mind with this platform,” Abate added. Sefia has been designed as a flexible, modular cell therapy manufacturing platform offering greater automation than previous ce.
