Catalent Enters into Strategic Partnership with Editas Medicine to Support Gene Editing Medicine Pipeline

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and SOMERSET, N.J., July 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Editas Medicine, Inc. (Nasdaq: EDIT), a leading genome editing company, and Catalent, the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies, development, and manufacturing solutions for drugs, biologics, cell and gene therapies, and consumer health products, today announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership whereby Catalent will provide support for the development, manufacturing, and clinical supply of Editas Medicine’s current and future portfolio of in vivo CRISPR medicines and engineered cell medicines.

To date, Catalent has undertaken manufacturing and related services for Editas Medicine at its gene therapy manufacturing facility in Baltimore, Maryland. Through the extended partnership, Catalent will provide further services to include development and manufacturing of Editas Medicine’s complex cell and gene medicines from its best-in-class facilities in Harmans/BWI, Maryland, and Houston, Texas. In addition, Catalent will play an integral part in delivering these vital therapies from its Philadelphia facility to clinical trial sites for administration to patients. Catalent’s integrated support will range from supplying critical raw materials, viral vectors, and engineered cell medicine production to storage and distribution of finished product for clinical trials.

Harry Gill, Editas Medicine’s Senior Vice President of Operations, commented, “As a key part of our in vivo medicines and engineered cell medicines manufacturing strategy, we are pleased to partner with Catalent to manufacture and secure our clinical supply – the latter being a critical component to ensure we can deliver the transformative medicines we are developing to clinical trial sites and patients participating in the study.”

“Catalent is proud to collaborate with Editas in its efforts to bring new targeted and durable CRISPR-based medicines to patients,” said Julien Meissonnier, Catalent’s Chief Scientific Officer. “Together, we have established a unique, integrated model enabling access to Catalent’s advanced cell and gene therapy technologies and clinical supply services. We value early partnerships with innovators and pioneers such as Editas, to enable the emergence of new therapeutic modalities by developing reliable, scalable manufacturing processes, and accelerating access to first-in-human studies.”