After several years spent honing its robotic cell therapy manufacturing system, Multiply Labs has snared its first collaboration with a major cell therapy developer.
Multiply Labs and Legend Biotech—one half of the team behind the J&J-partnered multiple myeloma CAR-T Carvykti—are teaming up to automate cell therapy production through the power of robotics.
The partners figure the collaboration has the potential to tee up quicker and more seamless adoption of robotic technology versus traditional automation approaches. While many of the fine details behind the deal are still under wraps, Legend is poised to receive “priority access” to Multiply’s automated systems as part of the team-up, according to a press release from Multiply.
Up until now, Multiply Labs has been busy forging partnerships with instrument, reagent and consumable makers to wed their products and tools with Multiply’s robotic system.
Multiply Labs initially set out with the support of Cytiva and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) before quickly teaming up with the likes of Thermo Fisher Scientific and Charles River Laboratories.
The company's goal is to automate the cell therapy production process without radically changing it, Fred Parietti, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Multiply Labs, said in an interview.
“The idea is that if the robots are able to use an instrument that was already used manually without changing it, then from the point of view of the cells, nothing is changing,” the CEO said.
The company has previously pointed to the high manufacturing costs of labor-intensive manual processes as well as a shortage of skilled workers in the field when touting the potential of its robotic system.
Multiply Labs’ system is comprised of modules in which robotic arms operate different instruments already widely used for cell therapy production today.
The cube-shaped modules come together to form a robotic “cluster," where Multiply’s robotic arms move materials through production stages and even have the potential to run parts of the process simultaneously, Parietti previously told Fierce.
The partnership with Legend as a commercial cell therapy developer represents a “major” new phase in Multiply Labs’ journey, Parietti said. The CEO said that additional partnerships with both instrument makers and cell therapy developers alike are coming down the pike.
Multiply Labs has certainly stayed busy in 2024. After expanding its collaboration with Thermo Fisher in February, the company quickly opened up new partnerships with the likes of Akron Bio, Wilson Wolf and GenScript.
In April, Multiply also announced an alliance with Stanford Medicine’s Laboratory for Cell & Gene Medicine (LGCM) in Palo Alto, California. Together, the partners will run a large study to help demonstrate the potential of Multiply’s robotic system, Parietti said.