BERKELEY, California and AMSTERDAM
,
February 28, 2022
(press release)
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Joint press release by WACKER and Actym Therapeutics Actym Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of novel therapies intended to transform the treatment of cancer, and Wacker Biotech announced today that they have signed a contract for the manufacturing of Actym’s lead clinical candidate, ACTM-838, for the treatment of solid tumors. Under the terms of the agreement, Wacker Biotech will initiate GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) production of Phase 1 clinical material of Actym’s therapeutic candidate at its site in Amsterdam using its LIBATEC® technology. Both companies announced today that they are already working closely together on technology transfer and initiation of scale-up production of ACTM-838. ACTM-838 is Actym’s lead clinical development candidate for the treatment of solid tumors. The therapeutic candidate is based on the company's immunotherapy platform called STACT (S. Typhimurium-Attenuated Cancer Therapy), which delivers active compounds directly to tumor-resident immune cells. “Manufacturing of ACTM-838 is an important milestone for our company. We are excited to work with Wacker Biotech given their significant experience manufacturing GMP-compliant, live microbial products in a closed production system,” said Christopher Thanos, PhD, Actym’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Wacker Biotech’s expertise in large-scale, high-quality microbial manufacturing is a perfect fit for production of therapeutic candidates for clinical testing from Actym’s state-of-the-art STACT platform.” Wacker Biotech is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) pooling the biopharmaceuticals activities of the WACKER Group. Wacker Biotech will use its LIBATEC® technology platform for live microbial products (LMPs) in the project. “We are pioneers in the field of LMP production, having begun LMP contract manufacturing at our Amsterdam site in 2006,” said Jörg Lindemann, Managing Director of Wacker Biotech B.V. “Our LIBATEC® platform can be used for a wide range of LMPs. It is perfectly suited to supporting Actym with their STACT platform.” Besides GMP-compliant process development and manufacturing, LIBATEC® will be used for the development of analytical methods. About Actym About Wacker Biotech
Actym Therapeutics, Inc., based in Berkeley, CA, USA, is a privately-held biotechnology company focused on discovery and development of novel immuno-oncology therapies to treat cancer. The company has developed an attenuated, microbial-based, immunotherapeutic technology platform called STACT (S. Typhimurium-Attenuated Cancer Therapy). In preclinical studies, STACT specifically enriches in many types of solid tumors and not in healthy tissue. Once there, STACT delivers multiplexed immuno-modulatory payloads directly to tumor-resident immune cells. Many of these payload targets are of significant interest to the biopharmaceutical community but are intractable using conventional approaches due to systemic toxicities after intravenous dosing. Furthermore, STACT has been engineered to deliver payload combinations, which facilitates engagement of multiple biological pathways from a single therapy. In April 2020, Actym raised $34 million in a Series A financing, co-led by Boehringer-Ingelheim Venture Fund and Panacea Venture Healthcare, with participation from Illumina Ventures, Korea Investment Partners, and JLO Ventures. For more information, please visit: www.actymthera.com.
Wacker Biotech GmbH, Wacker Biotech B.V. and Wacker Biotech US Inc. are full-service contract manufacturers of therapeutic proteins, live microbial products (LMPs), vaccines based on microbial systems, and of plasmid DNA. Wacker Biotech’s portfolio extends from strain/process development and analytical testing through to production for clinical and commercial applications. Wacker Biotech maintains three GMP-compliant (Good Manufacturing Practice), FDA- and EMA-certified production plants at its Jena and Halle sites in Germany and in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The company’s most recent acquisition is its San Diego site (Wacker Biotech US Inc.), added in February 2021. Wacker Biotech GmbH, Wacker Biotech B.V. and Wacker Biotech US Inc. are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Munich-based WACKER Group. For more information, visit: www.wacker.com/biologics
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