BioNTech is acquiring Kite’s clinical manufacturing facility in the US

BioNTech is acquiring Kite’s clinical manufacturing facility in the US and TCR cell therapy R&D platform to expand its presence in the cell therapy space.

To complement BioNTech’s current cell therapy manufacturing facility in Germany and support clinical trials, the Gaithersburg-based facility will boost production capacity.

The facility will specifically be used to support the development of BioNTech’s novel cell therapies, including the recently acquired NEOSTIM platforms and cancer product candidates based on the company’s CAR-T cell amplifying mRNA vaccine.

Kite will receive a one-time upfront payment as part of the acquisition agreement.

Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of BioNTechn, Ugur Sahin, stated: “The development of individualised cancer therapies is at the core of our work at BioNTech. The acquisition of the Kite facility and its individualised TCR platform allows us to accelerate the clinical development of our cell therapies in the US and advance at the forefront of individualised cell therapies. It also strengthens our presence in the US, building on our successful integration of adoptive T-cell and neoantigen TCR therapies as part of our acquisition of Neon Therapeutics last year.”