Description du projet
Rendre les traitements à base de lymphocytes CAR‑T accessibles à davantage de patients atteints de cancer
Les lymphocytes T à récepteur antigénique chimérique (lymphocytes CAR‑T) sont fabriqués à partir des lymphocytes T du patient et, en tant que tels, sont des armes sophistiquées contre le cancer, dont le potentiel est théoriquement illimité. Cependant, le coût élevé des traitements à base de lymphocytes CAR‑T reste un facteur inhibiteur pour leur mise en œuvre à grande échelle dans le domaine des soins de santé. Le projet Lakhesys, financé par l’UE, introduira une puce microfluidique très innovante qui changera fondamentalement l’industrie des lymphocytes CAR‑T, ainsi que des équipements permettant d’optimiser son utilisation. Cet outil permettra de réduire considérablement le coût de production, d’assurer l’amélioration de la qualité des traitements et d’augmenter les volumes de traitement aux niveaux requis. Le système innovant de Lakhesys aspire à offrir une solution européenne unique pour les thérapies révolutionnaires.
Objectif
Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapies (‘CAR-T’) are ushering in an incredibly exciting era of using a patient’s own cells to cure their cancer. The prospect of using a patient’s own cells to cure their disease is theoretically limitless. However, with all of this excitement comes a shadow. The cost of these life-saving treatments is currently so prohibitive that it threatens to put extreme cost-pressure on healthcare providers globally in the years ahead.
Astraveus has developed a highly innovative microfluidic chip that can fundamentally change the CAR-T industry. This chip answers the need to lower production cost (by ~70%), improve treatment quality and allow upscaling of treatment volumes to the required levels. Astraveus has also developed equipment to optimize the use of these microfluidic chips. They have incorporated these technologies into a working prototype of an instrument called ‘Lakhesys’. This instrument allows for automated, standalone, end-to-end production of a CAR-T therapy.
The design, fabrication and validation of the microfluidic innovation is a real breakthrough in the ability to cheaply and accurately produce these treatments. The further step of incorporating these chips into a prototype system demonstrates the huge potential for automating CAR-T production. This phase-2 project will upgrade the supporting modules to turn this working prototype into a launch-ready product. It will also support the validation and industrialisation steps to bring this innovation to market.
The industry is dominated by players in the USA and China (72% of CAR-T institutions are based in these two countries). Astraveus has invented something incredibly unique and a complete step-change versus anything seen on the market. As such, we present an opportunity to support the creation of a homegrown EU business that can challenge the status quo and, more importantly, put these life-saving therapies in the hands of all patients who need them.
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SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinateur
75010 Paris
France
L’entreprise s’est définie comme une PME (petite et moyenne entreprise) au moment de la signature de la convention de subvention.