Bone Therapeutics invests in cell therapy manufacturing facility

Bone Therapeutics, an international biopharmaceutical company focused on innovative cell therapy products for the treatment of bone diseases, has announced that it has secured its future manufacturing requirements, allowing it to produce its bone cell therapy products on a commercial scale.

Bone Therapeutics has made an investment in Skeletal Cell Therapy Support SA (SCTS), alongside the Walloon region and private investors, to fund the €10 million construction of a new manufacturing facility based in the Gosselies Scientific Park near Brussels, Belgium. The financing of the building cost is fully secured in equal parts in equity, loans from ING and BNP Paribas Fortis and subsidies from the Walloon Region. Bone Therapeutics is now a 49.9% shareholder in SCTS, which will manage the construction and will run the site once operational.

This investment will allow Bone Therapeutics to manufacture its lead product PREOB, an autologous bone cell therapy product currently in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of osteonecrosis, under GMP conditions.

The construction of the new facility will also provide SCTS customers with state-of-the-art facilities tailored to meet the specific demands of the cell therapy industry and deliver long-term operational and financial efficiencies, with an improved manufacturing process at an increased scale. The completed production unit will initially include six class B production cells across 1950 m² and will be able to produce up to 5000 batches per annum at full capacity. In addition, 1300 m² will be dedicated to quality control and research activities.

Upon completion of construction in 2015, Bone Therapeutics will be headquartered at the facility.

Enrico Bastianelli, Chief Executive Officer of Bone Therapeutics, commented: “We are delighted to be collaborating on this local venture to build a dedicated cell therapy industrial manufacturing facility in Wallonia. Securing access to these state-of-the-art facilities is in line with Bone Therapeutics’ strategy to become a successful commercial stage company and to support the potential commercialisation of our lead product PREOB, which is now ready for manufacturing and scale-up. This is a great opportunity for Bone Therapeutics and we look forward to moving our operations into the brand new state-of-the-art facilities.”