BCA, Galapagos Partner to Accelerate Decentralized CAR-T Manufacturing Network

Galapagos, a Belgian biopharmaceutical company, announced a strategic collaboration with Blood Centers of America (BCA) May 14 to advance the company’s chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T hemato-oncology clinical program.

The partnership will leverage BCA’s network of more than 50 community blood centers across 43 states to support decentralized manufacturing of Galapagos’ CAR-T product candidates. By utilizing BCA’s network, Galapagos aims to simultaneously initiate technology transfer to multiple sites and bring CAR T-cell therapy production closer to cancer treatment centers. Additionally, BCA centers will provide apheresis capacity as needed.

Through the decentralized network, Galapagos and BCA aim to address several challenges associated with traditional CAR-T production, such as manufacturing speed and scalability. Galapagos seeks to deliver cells with a vein-to-vein time of seven days, enhance physician control and improve patient experiences.

Additional information about the partnership is available online.