RoslinCT, a cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) developing life-changing therapies in Edinburgh’s BioQuarter, and Lykan Bioscience, a CDMO focused on cell-based therapies, have entered into a business combination agreement to form a global advanced therapies CDMO.

The combined group will offer process development expertise and cGMP manufacturing for a broad range of autologous and allogeneic cell therapies, with expertise in gene editing and industry-leading induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) capabilities.

The group will benefit from significantly expanded capacity, with process and analytical development laboratories and cGMP manufacturing facilities in Edinburgh, Scotland, and in Hopkinton, MA. Lykan has a 64,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art cell therapy manufacturing facility and innovation/development laboratories with 16 cGMP processing suites running by the end of 2022. Further laboratory and cGMP capacity expansion in Scotland is planned to build on RoslinCT’s existing 40,000 sq. ft facilities, including 8 cGMP suites.

With demand for high-quality development and manufacturing capacity increasing across the world, this complementary pairing of RoslinCT and Lykan will shorten development and manufacturing timelines for advanced therapy sponsors, facilitating clinical and commercial GMP product release on both sides of the Atlantic.

RoslinCT CEO Peter Coleman and Lykan president and CEO Patrick Lucy will remain in their current roles. Together, the new entity will have a global headcount of approximately 300 employees.

“This combination puts us in a strong position as a leading global CDMO in the process development and manufacturing of advanced cell therapies, and we look forward to working with our new colleagues at Lykan to fuel future growth and meet the increasing demand for innovative therapies,” said Coleman.

Lucy added, “We are delighted to combine with RoslinCT to better serve the growing demand for manufacturing capacity and expand the range of innovative services we can provide our partners to support the development of advanced cell and gene therapies.”