Irish Consortium Secures €2 Million to Reduce Gene Therapy Manufacturing Costs
Key Insights
A strategic partnership between APC (search), NIBRT (search), and UCD has received €2 million in funding from Research Ireland (search) and APC to develop more efficient gene therapy (search) manufacturing processes.
The Trans-Am project aims to address the high manufacturing costs of gene therapies, which can cost millions of euros per dose, by improving production methods and analytical techniques.
Researchers will focus on overcoming cellular defense mechanisms against virus production and developing new cell lines to enhance manufacturing efficiency.
A strategic partnership between Irish biopharmaceutical company APC (search), the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT (search)), and University College Dublin (UCD) has secured €2 million in funding to tackle one of gene therapy (search)'s biggest challenges: manufacturing costs. The Trans-Am project (Transformation of Advanced Medicines Manufacture), co-funded by Research Ireland (search) and APC, aims to develop more efficient production methods that could dramatically reduce the cost of life-saving gene therapies.
Addressing the Cost Challenge
Gene therapies represent a revolutionary class of medicines designed to replace faulty genes, often providing cures with a single treatment or just one or two repeat doses. However, their extraordinary efficacy creates an economic paradox. As Professor Niall Barron, the lead principal investigator for the project, explains, "a single dose of gene therapy (search) can often be a cure, but it is still a challenge to figure out how you compensate producers."
The manufacturing complexity translates into enormous costs. "We work with medicines that when they come to us can cost millions of euro for a single dose," says APC (search) chief technology officer and co-founder Professor Brian Glennon. "We bring it down to thousands. That's still a lot of money but the cost reduction is very important in making those medicines available to patients."
Manufacturing Complexity
Gene therapy (search) manufacturing presents unique technical challenges because these therapies cannot be chemically synthesized. "Chemists can't synthesise gene therapies; we need living biological systems to manufacture them," explains Barron. The therapies are delivered most efficiently by viruses, which must be produced using living cells grown in large vessels.
The complexity arises from asking cells to perform tasks fundamentally against their nature. "We are asking them to make viruses that contain a piece of genetic material that will cure cystic fibrosis (search) or haemophilia (search) or other conditions," says Barron. "But cells and viruses don't get on with each other. Cells don't like making viruses."
Research Strategy
The Trans-Am project will focus specifically on manufacturing optimization rather than therapy development. "We will look for the most efficient ways to make them," says Barron. "When we ask a cell to make a virus, we look at what defence mechanisms it comes up with and how we can counter that."
The research team includes PhD students investigating cellular changes and potentially developing new cell lines without natural defense mechanisms. The project will also advance analytical technologies to measure product quality and ensure safety standards.
Quality consistency represents a critical safety requirement. "You need to make sure that every time you make it, it's the same," emphasizes Glennon. "You have to be able to detect impurities right down to the level of a few parts per billion. The patients receiving the medicines are very sick and need extraordinarily high levels of purity. We are pushing the boundaries of analytical science."
Industry Impact
The five-year collaborative project involves co-principal investigators Dr Jessica Whelan from UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, Dr Jonathan Bones from NIBRT (search), Dr Ioscani Jimenez del Val from UCD, and Dr Colin Clarke from NIBRT. The research will translate practical outputs toward production pathways with support from VLE Therapeutics (search), APC (search)'s sister company.
Beyond immediate research goals, Trans-Am aims to strengthen Ireland's position in the global biopharmaceutical sector. "We want to build on the success of the industry and ensure that advanced therapeutics are part of the story," says Glennon. "This project is important to APC (search), but it will also build Ireland's reputation as a place where you can do this kind of work."
James Lawless TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, highlighted the broader significance: "In a relatively short time, gene therapy (search) has delivered extraordinary medical advances and, in many cases, life-changing outcomes for patients. Through research partnerships like this, we are deepening collaboration with industry, an approach that can be instrumental in delivering groundbreaking research with real benefits for Irish society, our economy, and our international reputation at the forefront of discovery."