Asimov and Center for Breakthrough Medicines Form Strategic Partnership for Viral Vector Production

• CBM to license Asimov's HEK293 viral vector production platform for use in preclinical and clinical manufacturing
• HEK293 cell line is GMP-banked and qualified, ready for immediate use
• Partnership aligns with Asimov's mission to advance the design and manufacture of cell and gene therapies

BOSTON, Jan. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Asimov, the synthetic biology company advancing the design and manufacture of therapeutics, announced today a strategic partnership with Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM), a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) dedicated to accelerating the commercialization of cell and gene therapies.

As part of the partnership, Asimov has licensed its clonal GMP HEK293 suspension cell line to CBM for pre-clinical and clinical production of viral vectors for its clients. HEK293 cell lines are the industry standard for producing therapeutic viral vectors, the most widely used vehicle for the delivery of gene therapies. With the unprecedented rise in approvals for new therapies, CBM will now be able to offer its clients immediate access to a high-performance clonal GMP qualified cell line as part of its comprehensive capabilities for vector manufacturing designed to deliver high yields and higher throughput without comprising quality. 

"Our partnership with CBM is a major step forward in our goal to advance therapeutics manufacturing," said Alec Nielsen, CEO of Asimov. "This validates our efforts in the viral vector space, and supports other research directions in host cell optimization, genetic system engineering, and bioreactor process modeling and development. By licensing our HEK293 viral vector production platform, CBM will be able to provide their clients with immediate access to reduce the cost of manufacturing these complex therapeutics."

Through the agreement, CBM will offer its clients access to the platform as part of its end to end comprehensive capabilities for vector manufacturing designed to accelerate development and manufacturing timelines of vector based advanced therapies.

"We believe this is the initial step of many with Asimov, an industry leader in mammalian synthetic biology and cell line development," said Avi Nandi, Chief Technical Officer at CBM. "We continue to make significant investments into our technology platforms to ensure our clients have access to an end-to-end solution that allows them to develop and manufacture at lower costs. Our goal is for rare disease therapies to be accessible to as many patients around the world as possible and our relationship with Asimov removes a key barrier to therapy developers."

Headquartered in Boston, Asimov's mission is to advance humanity's ability to design living systems, enabling biotechnologies with outsized societal benefit. The company is developing a synthetic biology platform – from cells to software – to design and manufacture next-generation therapeutics, including biologics, cell/gene therapies, and RNA. Founded by bioengineers from MIT and Boston University, the company has raised over $200 million from top institutional investors including Andreessen Horowitz, CPP Investments, Horizons Ventures, and Fidelity Management & Research Company. For more information, visit www.asimov.com.

Contact
Asimov, Inc.
Alec Nielsen
Co-founder & CEO
press@asimov.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1985510/neoncell5.jpg 
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1985552/asimov_wordmark_colorful_ID_a6dbaae677b8_Logo.jpg