GSK expands its clinical trial manufacturing capacity for cell and gene therapy at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult facility in Stevenage

Agreement enhances GSK’s investment in cell and gene therapy manufacturing in the UK for clinical trials and brings additional expertise to the collaborators already based at the CGT Catapult facility in Stevenage.

Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult) announce today that GSK will leverage the CGT Catapult Stevenage facility to perform GMP cell processing to accelerate its cell and gene therapy pipeline for clinical trials. Through this agreement, GSK will improve its GMP cell processing network to advance its early stage pipeline and streamline technical transfer. This decision further highlights the opportunity offered by the UK CGT ecosystem, and by the unique CGT Catapult model, in accelerating the setup of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP) manufacturing at scale.

The UK has more than 90 ATMP therapy developers and in 2020 has seen an increase of 48% in the UK GMP manufacturing space for cell and gene therapies. This increase also reflected the expansion of the CGT Catapult facility in Stevenage with six additional cleanrooms which enabled this new agreement.

Today’s announcement is another significant and successful step in the growth of cell and gene therapy activities in Stevenage and the UK as a whole. Building on the expertise already in place with current collaborators, the additive experience of GSK will allow for the development of new capabilities to benefit future and current collaborators, already present and progressing their manufacturing onsite.

Tony Wood, Senior Vice President, Medicinal Science and Technology of GSK commented:

"The UK already has significant capabilities in cell and gene therapy, and this agreement illustrates how strategic investments by GSK can make them even stronger. Working more closely with CGT Catapult will help us advance our promising cell and gene therapy programmes, and bring these transformative medicines more quickly to the patients who desperately need them."

Matthew Durdy, Chief Executive Officer of Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult commented:

"The move by a leading pharmaceutical company like GSK to establish ATMP manufacturing capabilities at the CGT Catapult facility in Stevenage highlights the UK’s globally leading position for large and smaller organisations alike to develop, manufacture and deliver cell and gene therapies. With a range of collaborators already based in the facility, we look forward to participating in the collective innovation onsite to pioneer the growth in scale of advanced therapy manufacturing."