Jul 25, 2019   SOURCE: BusinessWire

Massachusetts General Hospital and ElevateBio Announce a 10-Year Alliance Agreement to Utilize ElevateBio BaseCamp to Manufacture Innovative Cell and Gene Therapies

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and ElevateBio, a cell and gene therapy holding company, today announced that they have entered into a 10-year alliance agreement. The agreement provides MGH preferred access to ElevateBio’s BaseCamp research, process development and manufacturing facility in Waltham, Mass. for development and production of highly innovative cell and gene therapies developed at MGH. Under this agreement, MGH is making an investment in ElevateBio BaseCamp, and BaseCamp’s facilities and expert staff will support a range of cell- and gene-therapy programs arising from MGH’s research programs and laboratories. In addition, ElevateBio and MGH will jointly identify innovative cell and gene technologies from university labs and other external sources to create therapeutics companies to advance additional cell and gene therapies from the lab to the bedside of patients suffering from severe diseases.

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According to the terms of the agreement, MGH will have guaranteed access to ElevateBio’s BaseCamp for multiple, simultaneous cell- and gene-therapy programs for process development and manufacturing each year. At the same time, ElevateBio and MGH may jointly form any number of companies to manufacture and develop cell- and gene-therapeutic candidates from multiple sources.

“MGH researchers and clinicians continue to make unprecedented progress for patients as they develop novel cell and gene therapies,” said Peter L. Slavin, MD, president of the MGH. “This collaboration with ElevateBio will enable us to amplify our efforts in the development and manufacture of cell and gene therapies.”

David Hallal, chief executive officer of ElevateBio, said the company is pleased to be working with Massachusetts General Hospital to develop a new generation of cell and gene therapies. “This 10-year alliance with MGH advances key objectives for our organization as we strive to reach more patients faster with innovative clinical-stage cell and gene therapies,” he said. “We look forward to providing updates of our progress under this new collaboration in the months ahead.”

About Massachusetts General Hospital

Founded in 1811, Massachusetts General Hospital (www.massgeneral.org) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The 1,000-bed medical center each year admits approximately 50,000 inpatients, handles more than 1.5 million visits to its extensive outpatient programs at the main campus and four health centers, and records more than 100,000 emergency visits. The surgical staff performs more than 42,000 operations annually, and the MGH Vincent Obstetrics Service delivers more than 3,800 babies a year. The largest nongovernment employer in the city of Boston, the MGH has more than 25,500 employees, including more than 5,000 registered nurses. MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $925 million. MGH and Brigham and Women's Hospital are founding members of Partners HealthCare System, a Boston-based integrated health care delivery system.

About ElevateBio and BaseCamp

ElevateBio, LLC, is a Cambridge-based biotechnology holding company, established to create and operate a broad portfolio of cell and gene therapy companies with leading academic researchers, medical centers and entrepreneurs. ElevateBio builds single- and multi-product companies by providing scientific founders with fully integrated bench-to-bedside capabilities including world-class scientists, manufacturing facilities, drug developers and commercial expertise. ElevateBio’s lead investors are the UBS Oncology Impact Fund (OIF) managed by MPM Capital, as well as F2 Ventures. Investors also include EcoR1 Capital, Redmile Group, and Samsara BioCapital.

ElevateBio has established ElevateBio BaseCamp, a single R&D, process development and cGMP manufacturing company, to address the process development and manufacturing barriers that can impede the successful development of cell and gene therapies. BaseCamp is providing these and other services across ElevateBio’s portfolio companies and selected strategic partners. With more than 100,000 square feet of space, the new home of ElevateBio BaseCamp, being built in Waltham, Mass., includes cGMP manufacturing suites, analytics and QC laboratories, and protein engineering, virology and immunology labs, all with state-of-the art levels of laboratory automation. BaseCamp’s staff, led by cell and gene therapy pioneer Mitchell Finer, Ph.D., have world-class expertise in developing and manufacturing immunotherapies, regenerative medicine products, in vivo viral-based therapies, and other cell and gene therapies.

For more information, please visit https://www.elevate.bio.