Evotec Adds Cell Therapy Manufacturing Facility with Acquisition of Rigenerand - Seite 2

Prof. Massimo Dominici, founder and CSO of Rigenerand and Professor of Oncology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, said: "The combination of Rigenerand and Evotec is a unique opportunity to grow and a natural evolution for our team. The field of cell therapies is rapidly expanding with new products and novel technologies requiring R&D skills, flexibility in manufacturing and experience in pharmaceutical development. Evotec's EVO cells platform and Rigenerand's technologies and capacity to transform cells into therapeutic products combining an R&D vocation and manufacturing skills, is a unique combination with technological and logistic synergies that will make a very relevant impact in the cell therapy field with a state-of-the art cGMP Technological Center for Cell Therapy Manufacturing at a European scale."

Luca Marini, CEO of Xyence Capital SGR, the majority shareholder of Rigenerand, said: "We are very proud of the success of this deal because it shows our expertise in identifying high-potential scientific areas, such as cell therapies, and in providing a fair financial return to our investors that have chosen to contribute to the incubation and growth of Rigenerand since 2016. Evotec is the optimal industrial partner to bring Rigenerand to further global growth. Last but not least, we are happy to have created the conditions for a number of benefits for the local economy, as well as the basis for an evident scientific progress that remains the purpose and ethical core of our investment philosophy."

About Cell Therapy and EVO cells
Cell therapy is a recent and innovative therapeutic modality that has the potential to deliver unprecedented therapeutic effects. Cell therapies can be used as a regenerative strategy, replacing a patient's dysfunctional cells or are used as adoptive immunotherapy to help the immune system fight cancer. Sources for cell therapeutics range from the patient's own material, a healthy donor or from stem cells. The advent of induced pluripotent stem cells ("iPS cells" or "iPSCs") that can be generated directly from somatic cells has opened up stem cells as an almost unlimited source of consistent-quality material for such cell therapies. iPSC-derived, off-the shelf therapeutics are considered to be one of the most promising approaches in the cell therapy space.