Charles River to collaborate with Curigin in new gene therapy manufacturing deal

Charles River Laboratories is expanding its work in gene therapy manufacturing with its latest deal.

On Monday, Charles River announced it is working with the South Korean biotech Curigin, which produces oncolytic ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi)-based gene therapies. The deal will see Charles River develop and manufacture AAVs for Curigin’s candidate CA102, a treatment for bladder cancer, for which it plans to submit an IND to the FDA sometime next year.

Charles River did not give any financial details about the deal, but it did tell Endpoints News via email that it will be manufacturing the AAVs for the candidate at its CDMO manufacturing facility in Rockville, MD.

Jae-Gyun Jeong

“Developing innovative therapeutics is our mission and we are steadily working towards that goal. We are excited to work with Charles River in the manufacturing phase as we continue to race on the path to drug development for oncology patients,” Curigin President Jae-Gyun Jeong said in a release.

According to Ramin Baghirzade, the senior director and global head of commercial for gene therapy CDMO services at Charles River, the evolving field of gene therapy is in a “huge paradigm shift” which Charles River is positioned to capitalize on.

“Currently, the industry is at an inflection point – and we expect many more products to be approved very soon. Charles River Laboratories have a lot of heritage and experience in this space, so it felt like a natural evolution to offer end-to-end services – starting with early discovery all the way to commercial approvals (for gene therapy products),” Baghirzade said to Endpoints in an email.

Charles River has been steadily securing its foothold in both the gene and cell therapy sectors, as it acquired Cognate BioServices, a cell and gene therapy specialist with operations in the US and EU, in 2021 for $875 million. Also in 2021, it acquired gene therapy CDMO Vigene Biosciences for $292.5 million.

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therapeutics
cell therapy
gene therapy
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