Orgenesis unveils new offices, labs at Accessia Pharma in Belgium to boost its point-of-care cellular therapy platform

Orgenesis Inc (NASDAQ:ORGS), a developer of advanced cell therapies, said Tuesday that it is opening new offices and labs at Accessia Pharma in Liège, Belgium, for its Belgian subsidiary, Orgenesis SPRL, to support its point-of-care cellular therapy platform.

Germantown, Maryland-based Orgenesis said it was supported by its partners Theracell (Greece), Hemogenyx (UK), Serpin (USA), to expand cellular therapy development in the Walloon region of Belgium.

Orgenesis said its goal is to utilize its know-how and intellectual property to advance new autologous cell therapies to a clinical stage and enable point-of-care cell therapy development and services.

Two of the most common types of stem cell transplants are autologous and allogeneic transplants. Both kinds of stem cell transplantations are a common treatment option for cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma.

READ: Orgenesis kicks off US expansion of MaSTherCell Global subsidiary with Houston facility

An autologous transplant uses a person’s own stem cells, while an allogeneic transplant uses stem cells from a donor whose human leukocyte antigens (HLA) are acceptable matches to the patient’s.

“We are excited to further expand in the Walloon Region of Belgium, a leading center for talent and R&D within Europe,” said Orgenesis CEO Vered Caplan, in a statement. “The opening of our new offices and laboratories at Accessia Pharma will strengthen the roll-out of our point-of-care strategy across Europe. We are honored to work closely with a number of leading international partners and believe they will greatly benefit from our expanded European activity within the supportive Walloon Region.”

Rapidly building global network

The company is focused on rapidly building its global network and views the new center as a “significant starting location” in Europe.

Orgenesis said it was “strategically positioned” in Europe through two of its own subsidiaries in the Walloon Region. One of them is MaSTherCell Belgium, a member of Orgenesis’ gene therapy global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), MaSTherCell Global. The other is Orgenesis SPRL, which is active in the autologous cell therapy and service segment with a strong focus on advancing the company’s novel autologous trans-differentiation cell therapy technologies for the treatment of diabetes and other potential indications.

“We believe that through our point-of-care strategy, we can significantly reduce development costs through joint ventures with local partners who bring strong regional networks,” said Efrat Assa Kunik, general manager of Orgenesis SPRL Belgium.

Kunik said partnerships with local hospitals would allow them to engage in continuous in-licensing of autologous therapies from academia and research institutes. The utilization of hospital networks would also boost the clinical development of new therapies.

Orogenesis stock was trading flat at $4.94 in morning trade.

Contact Uttara Choudhury at [email protected]

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Story by ProactiveInvestors