Cartherics and Catalent announce enhanced partnership

Cartherics Pty Ltd, an Australian biotechnology company developing off‑the‑shelf immune cell therapies for high‑impact women’s diseases, including ovarian cancer and endometriosis, has announced an agreement with Catalent, Inc. — a global contract development and manufacturing organisation — intended to support Cartherics’ mission to develop immune cell therapy products for the treatment of cancer and endometriosis.

Signing an amended commercial licence agreement, the partnership seeks to enable the use of a Catalent cGMP‑compliant induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) line for the manufacture and commercialisation of Cartherics’ iPSC-derived Chimeric Antigen Receptor Natural Killer (CAR-NK) cell therapies.

“We are delighted to have established a collaborative relationship with Catalent, a leading cell and gene therapy CDMO, to expedite the development of our CAR-NK cell products,” Cartherics CEO Dr Ian Nisbet said. “We are confident that our collaboration with Catalent will underpin cost-effective manufacturing of our products.”

Cartherics is granted rights, under the terms of the agreement, to develop and commercialise multiple product candidates derived from a Catalent off-the-shelf cGMP iPSC line, including its lead CAR‑NK cell product, CTH‑401. “The licensed iPSC line is part of a broader portfolio of fully characterised, donor‑consented, clinical‑grade iPSC lines generated under GMP conditions, supported by validated workflows for reprogramming, expansion, gene editing, differentiation and quality control,” Cartherics said.

“We are thrilled to broaden our partnership with Cartherics and support the important work the company is doing to develop Natural Killer cells for the treatment of cancer,” said David McErlane, Biologics Group President for Catalent. “Our teams are highly engaged in achieving positive outcomes across all stages of development, and we look forward to advancing Cartherics’ program toward commercialisation.”

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