CGT Catapult and Deep Science Ventures Team Up to Boost Innovation in Advanced Therapies

The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult) and Deep Science Ventures, a London-based venture creator, have collaboratively launched a partnership to generate innovative approaches that address barriers in the advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) industry. The partnership’s goals are to create new companies and deliver better patient outcomes, CGT Catapult announced in a Nov. 11, 2021 press release.

Under the agreement, CGT Catapult and Deep Science Ventures will spend the next 12 months identifying an area that is ripe for innovation, hire a founding analyst to evaluate potential approaches for scientific and commercial viability, build teams around optimal approaches, and create one or more high-impact ventures. Furthermore, in addition to improving patient outcomes, the partners aim to ultimately increase job opportunities and innovation in the ATMP sector.

Major hurdles for ATMP development include the challenges of ensuring target specificity and achieving effective manufacturing at-scale. Under this collaboration Deep Science Ventures will use its outcome-focused approach to venture creation, in which it will combine available scientific knowledge with founder-type scientists into high-impact venture companies. CGT Catapult will provide its cell and gene therapy-specific technical, non-clinical, and regulatory expertise to apply Deep Science Ventures’ approach to the ATMP sector.

“Joining forces with the CGT Catapult enables us to bring our unique approach to innovation to the cell and gene therapy ecosystem. Bringing together [Deep Science Ventures’] structured approach to venture creation and the ability to tap into the [CGT] Catapult’s network of expertise will allow us to create high-impact solutions overcoming some of the barriers holding back the ATMP space,” said Kerstin Papenfuss, associate director Pharma, Deep Science Ventures in a company press release.

“The innovative and collaborative concept used by [Deep Science Ventures] fits well with the CGT Catapult’s ethos, and, by addressing challenges within the cell and gene therapy industry, our activities have the potential to provide exceptional outcomes in driving innovation forward and creating opportunities in employment. We very much look forward to initiating our work together and creating new partnerships between scientists and investors,” said Matthew Durdy, CEO of CGT Catapult, in the press release.

Source: The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult