BioOra Limited, a commercial-stage cell therapy company advancing CAR-T therapies for cancer patients, and Canada-based Octane Biotech Inc., an Octane Medical Group Company, has announced the signing of a Letter of Intent (LoI) to collaborate on the co-development and deployment of advanced cell therapies using the Cocoon® automated cell therapy manufacturing platform.
The collaboration builds upon the existing partnership through which BioOra's CD19-targeted CAR-T therapy (Atla-Cel) is produced by Octane's Cocoon Platform for patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma in New Zealand as part of the registration trial (ENABLE-2).
Under the agreement, BioOra and Octane will work together to expand manufacturing capacity to support BioOra's regional growth, beginning with Australia and extending to additional international markets.
Octane is advancing the Cocoon Platform to enable efficient, decentralized scaling of cell therapy manufacturing. In parallel, BioOra is constructing a bespoke cell therapy manufacturing facility in Christchurch New Zealand, the BioOra Health & Technology Centre, designed to concurrently operate Cocoon systems to meet growing regional demand for CAR-T and other advanced cell therapies. By leveraging the automated and integrated design of the Cocoon Platform, the collaboration is expected to improve operational efficiency, increase manufacturing throughput, and reduce vein-to-vein time, supporting a new model for delivering personalised cell therapies.
The collaboration is also expected to expand international patient access through therapy delivery in New Zealand, and potentially in Australia, where BioOra is establishing partnerships to deliver CAR-T therapies to the large number of patients who do not have access in their home countries.
