Automation Companies Producing Cell Therapy

Robin Williams once said that reality is just a crutch for people who can't handle drugs. America, more than any other country, consumes huge quantities of drugs. For pain — opioids, for nervous tension — Adderall. 

In the future, medicines will be tailored to each person's individual genetic profile. Mass adaptation of pharmaceutical drugs and whole-genome sequencing will lead to a personalized pill for everyone. 

Robotics in drug manufacturing

At first, these companies called themselves "robotics companies." But robotics is just one component of a full-featured automation platform that does far more than simply move objects. 

Robotics in pharmaceuticals is nothing new. Most drug manufacturers already use robots for packaging. Every major pharmaceutical manufacturer has warehouses to store all of its medicines. There are many robotic automation solutions for creating real therapeutic products. 

This involves much more than buying a few robots to move vials. Let's look at several companies that are automating drug production. 

Multiply Labs

Founded in 2016, the company raised $22 million in funding to develop a platform that automates the production of precise therapeutic products. 

The original idea behind 3D printing personalized pills was to make them using any combination of components one could imagine. It nearly solved the problem, since one could simply build an automated system for filling capsules with individually calculated amounts of ingredients. 

Multiply Labs came after 3D printing. The company's initial use case involves advanced robotics technology packed into a miniature automated factory that accepts digital prescription orders and fulfills them according to each patient's unique needs. These production cells occupy just 1.4 m². 

Multiply Labs called this the "first demonstration of fully autonomous pharmaceutical manufacturing," with emphasis on customization, scalability and safety. Since then, the company has shifted to a production use case that looks more like laboratory work. 

The company went further and considered manufacturing cell therapies, which today require a fairly complex manual process. CAR-T cell therapy, for example, requires scientists to take blood from a patient, separate the immune cells, genetically engineer them, grow new cells and infuse them back into the patient. In many cases, each of these steps must be repeated for every patient. 

An article in MIT also describes the added value of an automated process that can perform several tasks simultaneously, increasing the productivity and speed with which therapy can be delivered. 

Ori Biotech

Founded in 2015, the company raised $39 million in funding to create a platform that improves quality and reduces costs in the production of cell and gene therapy. Recently, it has begun working with a number of companies, such as Hitachi and Venti.

Venti is a cloud platform for access to cell and gene therapy, originally developed by General Electric and the Mayo Clinic. It currently serves hundreds of leading medical centers and manufacturing facilities around the world. This will pave the way for a full cycle that helps deliver therapy to patients seamlessly. 

Cellares

The startup has already raised $100 million in funding. In summer 2021, the company added Poseida Therapeutics (PSTX) to its early access partnership program for Cell Shuttle, a highly specialized "factory in a box" solution for developing cell therapy. 

This is true automation in a closed system, which reduces costs by 70% and cuts process failure rates threefold. More than 85% of cell treatments are supported, including autologous (using your own cells) and allogeneic (using donor cells). Cellares claims its platform can bring pharmaceutical companies to market one to two years faster. 

In conclusion

More than 1,000 clinical trials of cell therapy are being conducted worldwide, so there are many opportunities for robotic solutions. The three companies above are far from the only ones working on this. 

Using the latest robotics technology and machine learning algorithms to automate the production process is nothing new. Nothing prevents drug manufacturers from doing the heavy lifting themselves. That is why it is important for these companies to collaborate with larger industry stakeholders and quickly gain a foothold.