Immuneel Therapeutics announced the inauguration of an integrated cell therapy development and manufacturing facility in Bengaluru. Located in Narayana Hrudayalaya Health City, the 12,000-sq ft integrated facility includes a laboratory and cGMP-compliant manufacturing suites.

“The facility is compliant with Indian Gene Therapy Product (GTP) guidelines released in 2019 and global cGMP guidelines for advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) published by EMA and USFDA with a focus on manufacturing and quality systems specific to cell therapies,” informed the company in a statement.

Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India inaugurated the facility in the presence of Dr Devi Shetty, Chairman, Narayana Health, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Co-Founder, Immuneel Therapeutics and Dr Arun Anand, COO, Immuneel Therapeutics.

In her keynote address, Dr Swarup said “Immuneel’s facility inauguration is a significant milestone for India as it enables India to have an integrated facility that develops advanced technologies and delivers cutting edge therapies. Immuneel’s mission of providing affordable, high-quality therapy fulfils the ambitions of the Government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat program towards a self-reliant nation that also serves the world.”

Dr Devi Shetty, Chairman, Narayana Health, said, “Immuneel has created an edifice for the future within Narayana Health City with the singular aim of saving precious lives using transformative therapies like CAR-T cell therapies.”

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Co-founder, Immuneel, said, “The inauguration of this fully integrated facility is a proud milestone for Immuneel Therapeutics and for India as we bring a breakthrough innovation like CAR-T therapy to cancer patients in India. Immuneel is keen to play a key role in capability and capacity building for the nation in partnership with the Department of Biotechnology and lead the way in building an eco-system to deliver translational cell and gene therapy.”

Dr Arun Anand, COO, Immuneel Therapeutics said, “Along with setting up this world-class facility, Immuneel has also attracted exceptional global talent with prior experience in cell therapy in pursuit of our mission to deliver affordable cell therapies such as CAR-T therapy to patients in India.”

This multi-product multi-process facility will currently focus on autologous cell therapies including CAR-T cell therapy for lymphomas and leukaemias (haeme malignancies).In future, it will also focus on other forms of solid tumours and allogeneic cell therapy as well as beyond cell therapy and oncology.