Secant Group Announces Collaboration With Orgenesis and Atvio Biotech

Secant Group, a manufacturer of advanced biomaterials and medical textiles, has announced a collaboration with Orgenesis Inc. and Atvio Biotech Ltd., which is wholly-owned by the company’s Masthercell Global subsidiary, to develop and commercialize biodegradable and injectable scaffold technologies for use in advanced cell therapies.
 
Under the agreement, Secant Group will engineer and prototype 3D scaffolds based on novel biomaterials and technologies involving bioresorbable polymer microparticles, while Atvio will provide expertise in cell coatings, cell production, process development and support services. The collaboration will be financed in part through a $1.8 million grant from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial R&D (BIRD) Foundation, as well as additional funding provided by Orgenesis and Secant Group. Orgenesis shall have the right to utilize the technology for its autologous cell therapy platform, including its Autologous Insulin Producing (AIP) cell technology for patients with type 1 diabetes, acute pancreatitis and other insulin deficient diseases.
 
Vered Caplan, CEO of Orgenesis, commented, “We are encouraged by the early progress resulting from the collaboration between Atvio and Secant Group. Secant brings unique expertise in advanced biomaterials and scaffold structures. Their best-in-class scaffold technology is designed to minimize stress for the cells thereby potentially enhancing yields and dramatically shortening cell culturing time. We look forward to leveraging this technology within our own therapeutic products. This agreement is closely aligned with our broader strategy to partner and in-license best-in-class technologies to advance our cell therapy platform.”
 
Jeff Robertson, president of Secant Group, said, “Secant Group has been advancing the use of biomaterials in the field of regenerative medicine through the development of scaffold technologies for decades. We are excited to bring our technologies forward in this project. Biomaterials show significant promise as vehicles for cell transplantation because of their potential to modulate the microenvironment of the cells. We believe that their use in 3D scaffolding of various configurations is gaining substantial acceptance.”
 
Secant Group is a global leader in advanced biomaterials and implantable textile components in support of the medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Using advanced polymers, metals, and composites Secant Group develops implantable structures that enable repair, recovery, and regeneration of the human body.
 
ATVIO Biotech, a wholly owned subsidiary of Masthercell Global, is a global cell therapy process innovation center with a focus on cGMP cell and gene manufacturing, virus manufacturing, process development, custom automation and translation of cell therapies from lab to market.
 
Orgenesis is a vertically-integrated biopharmaceutical company with expertise and experience in cell therapy development and support services. Through its Israeli subsidiary, Orgenesis Ltd., Orgenesis is developing technology designed to successfully reprogram human liver cells into glucose-responsive, fully functional, Insulin Producing Cells (IPCs). Orgenesis believes that converting the diabetic patient’s own tissue into insulin-producing cells has the potential to overcome the significant issues of donor shortage, cost and exposure to chronic immunosuppressive therapy associated with islet cell transplantation. Through its Masthercell Global subsidiary, a global contract development and manufacturing organization, Orgenesis delivers optimized process industrialization capacities to cell therapy organizations and speed up the arrival of their therapies onto the market. From technology selection to business modeling, GMP manufacturing, process development, and quality management, Masthercell’s teams helping clients provide sustainable and affordable therapies to patients. Masthercell operates in a validated and flexible facility located in the strategic center of Europe within the Walloon healthcare cluster, Biowin.