Cellipont Bioservices, a cell therapy Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO), announced on Tuesday an expansion of its existing partnership with CellVax Therapeutics Inc, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on individualised cell-based immunotherapies.

Building on the partners' prior work on FK-PC101 -- currently in a Phase II clinical trial for high-risk prostate cancer patients -- the new agreement includes cGMP manufacturing, drug substance and drug product technology transfer, and GMP facility preparation in support of FK-GI101, an autologous cell-based immunotherapy targeting gastric, pancreatic, and colon cancer and the current FK-PC101 trial.

FK-GI101 is based on CellVax's proprietary platform that utilises a patient's own tumour cells harvested during surgery. These cells are modified in the lab to express MHC Class II molecules, enhancing visibility to the immune system. The cells are then irradiated to render replication-incompetent before being administered back to the patient to activate a personalised immune response against residual or recurring tumour cells.