The Novo Nordisk Foundation has announced that it has committed up to €127m in funding to develop and manufacture a new cell therapy facility, Cellerator, in Denmark, to help fight chronic diseases.
The new Novo Nordisk Foundation, Cellerator, will be used for the final development steps of animal research and upscaling new cell therapies for testing in humans.
This will help to accelerate treatments for people with diseases including chronic heart failure, Parkinson’s disease, kidney disease, type 1 diabetes and several forms of cancer.
Cell therapies work by transplanting living cells into patients to treat diseases.
It’s estimated that one in three adults suffers from multiple chronic conditions.
In the US alone, it’s been calculated that out of 58 million deaths in 2005, chronic disease was responsible for 35 million.
The funding follows a report prepared for the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, which came to the conclusion that Europe is falling behind the US and Asia in its pharmaceutical R&D investment, including advanced therapeutic medicinal products such as cell and gene therapies.
The new unit, located at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), will be the first large-scale site for process development and GMP production in the country and will serve public and private, national and international clients across academia, biotech and pharmaceutical industries.
“Cell therapies have the potential to take us from treating or managing the symptoms of chronic diseases to treating the disease itself, or even curing it with a one-off procedure,” says Thomas Carlsen, chief executive officer of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Cellerator.
“We’ve seen major advances in the laboratory in recent years, but many promising cell therapy candidates face difficulties reaching clinical trials, partly because we can’t currently develop cell therapy products in large, consistent quantities here in Denmark. I’m thrilled to be heading an initiative that will change this and provide hope to people living with chronic diseases.”
The facility is due to open in 2027, and work is set to begin next year.