WuXi Advanced Therapies (WuXi ATU), a wholly owned subsidiary of WuXi AppTec, announced the launch of Tetracycline-Enabled Self-Silencing Adenovirus (TESSA™). This technology is a state-of-the-art novel process for transfection-free, scalable manufacture of adeno-associated virus (AAV) at Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) grade. Developed by OXGENE in the United Kingdom, a WuXi Advanced Therapies company, TESSA™ will expedite AAV manufacturing and significantly reduce the cost for manufacturing cell and gene therapies, enabling global customers to deliver more accessible ground-breaking therapeutics to patients as quickly as possible.

AAV vector is a popular tool for the delivery of gene therapies in diseases such as haemophilia and Alzheimer's. Efficient processes for manufacturing AAV on a large scale are critical to meeting increasing industry demands. TESSA™ vectors can meet the scalability challenges of AAV production, which has significant implications for expanding patient access to these novel therapeutics.

The new data published in Nature Communications supports the benefits of this technology. It highlights that in the same manufacturing volume, TESSA™ vectors produced 10 times more AAV than plasmid-based manufacture, producing enough material to treat ten times the number of patients.