MaxCyte, Inc., and Medinet Co. Ltd., announced today that they have agreed to amend their License, Development and Supply Agreement ("Agreement") for expansion of Medinet's right to use MaxCyte's cell loading technology in Asia Pacific markets.
“This collaboration broadens our ability to discover, develop, and deliver important cell-based products and represents an important step in MaxCyte's global commercial development plan.”
The original 2007 Agreement provided MaxCyte's cell loading system for use in Medinet's Dendritic Cell ("DC") Vaccine Therapy in Japan. Medinet is currently marketing its DC Vaccine Therapy, which uses MaxCyte's electroporation-based cell loading system for loading tumor antigens into DCs. This expansion of the Agreement will allow Medinet to further co-develop new and novel technologies for intractable diseases in addition to cancer as well as to enhance demand for Immuno-Cell Therapy outside of Japan in the Asia Pacific markets.
"Medinet has continuously focused its business activities on expansion of the Immuno-Cell Therapy market domestically and internationally to increase its presence in cancer therapy and to maximize the earnings of its core services, Immuno-Cell Therapy Total Support Service," says Mr. Yoshiji Kimura, Chief Executive Officer of Medinet Co. Ltd. "The expansion of our partnership enables the delivery of those therapies to more patients in new markets and permits development of other novel therapeutics."
"We have worked closely with our colleagues at Medinet and are excited to expand our relationship to include the investigation and development of new cell-based therapies in Asia," says Mr. Douglas Doerfler, President & Chief Executive Officer at MaxCyte. "This collaboration broadens our ability to discover, develop, and deliver important cell-based products and represents an important step in MaxCyte's global commercial development plan."
Under the amendment to the Agreement, MaxCyte has provided Medinet with the exclusive right to utilize the MaxCyte® GT™ Flow Transfection System in Medinet's Immuno-Cell Therapy Service not only across Japan, but also in China, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan. Further, the expanded license will allow Medinet to use the MaxCyte® GT™ Flow Transfection System broadly for research applications allowing Medinet to enhance its collaboration with universities and other medical institutions by utilizing MaxCyte's technology for development of novel immune cell therapies.
The MaxCyte® GT™ Flow Transfection System is a validated platform for optimizing the biological activity of cellular therapeutic products. The system, which is supported by a US FDA Master File and CE marking, enables rapid and efficient transfection of any primary cell or cell line to achieve greater than 90% cell viability. A broad range of molecules (protein, drug, plasmid, mRNA, or siRNA), at volumes up to tens of billion cells, can be processed in less than 30 minutes. The system is rapid, closed, and automated for both cGMP facility and point-of-care use. The MaxCyte® GT™ Flow Transfection System enables cost-effective delivery of both autologous and allogeneic cellular therapies, customized for enhanced efficacy. The MaxCyte® GT™ Flow Transfection System has been validated in a marketed oncology therapy and in multiple human clinical studies in oncology and regenerative medicine.
Financial terms of the license expansion were not disclosed.
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