Three leading companies in the cell and gene therapy (CGT) manufacturing space have joined forces to address one of the industry's most critical challenges: ensuring consistent therapeutic outcomes through superior starting material quality. Lonza, Excellos, and Akadeum Life Sciences announced their collaborative project on August 6, 2025, with the goal of redefining standards for cell therapy manufacturing by elevating the role of upstream processes.
Strategic Technology Integration
The partnership brings together complementary expertise from each organization to create what the companies envision as a comprehensive, modular workflow. Excellos contributes its donor-to-dose capabilities, including donor management, apheresis, cell characterization, and GMP manufacturing. Akadeum Life Sciences adds its gentle, flotation-based cell separation technology built around microbubble technology designed specifically for maintaining cell health. Lonza provides the Cocoon® Platform, a functionally closed, automated manufacturing system that enables decentralized scale-up.
"Quality at the starting point is not optional—it's foundational," said Rob Tressler, CSO of Excellos. "When you bring together deeply characterized donor material, gentle cell selection, and functionally closed-system manufacturing, you set the stage for scalable and consistent therapies."
The collaboration is exploring the technical feasibility of combining these approaches into a single modular workflow, with early conversations focusing on how the integration might streamline operations across the CGT landscape.
Focus on Upstream Impact
The project emphasizes a critical principle in cell therapy manufacturing: upstream quality directly impacts downstream performance and clinical consistency. The companies are working to demonstrate how aligned innovation in donor sourcing, cell processing, and automated manufacturing can reduce variability and improve therapeutic outcomes for both autologous and allogeneic therapies.
"Our microbubble technology was built for cell health," said Bill Lloyd, PhD, Senior Director of R&D at Akadeum. "Exploring how our kit performs within an automated environment like the Cocoon® Platform is part of an exciting vision to scale up without compromising cell quality."
Glen Prosise, PhD, MBA, Senior Sales and Applications Manager at Lonza, highlighted the integration potential of their platform. "The Cocoon® Platform is designed for integration—and it's exciting to explore how these technologies can work in concert in a way that's intended to help reduce variability and accelerate therapeutic timelines."
Industry Knowledge Sharing Initiative
The immediate focus of the collaboration centers on sharing best practices and aligned innovation strategies through industry events. On August 12, 2025, Excellos will host a symposium at its San Diego headquarters in collaboration with biotechnology firms Teknova and Pluristyx. The event will feature expert panels covering supply chain risk, regulatory evolution, and emerging tools like AI and machine learning in CGT operations.
A joint webinar scheduled for August 21, 2025, titled "Unlocking Upstream Value: Donor-to-Dose Solutions for Scalable Cell Therapy Manufacturing," will bring together scientific experts from all three organizations. The discussion will examine how upstream choices surrounding donor sourcing, apheresis processing, cell selection, and automated manufacturing affect therapeutic performance and improve scale-up capabilities.
Speakers for the webinar include William Lloyd from Akadeum, Robert Tressler from Excellos, and Kathleen Zohorsky, senior scientist and team leader on the Cocoon process development team at Lonza.
Future Integration Opportunities
The collaboration is rooted in the shared belief that better inputs lead to better therapies. Over the coming months, the companies plan to explore opportunities for deeper technical integration and data-sharing that could support industry-wide advancement in cell therapy manufacturing.
The project represents a significant step toward addressing manufacturing challenges that have historically limited the scalability and consistency of cell and gene therapies, with the potential to impact both the development timeline and therapeutic efficacy of advanced treatments.
