SAN FRANCISCO– Multiply Labs, a robotics company developing industry-leading automated manufacturing systems to produce individualized drugs, and Retro Biosciences (Retro), a biotechnology company developing therapies that meaningfully address age-related diseases, today announced a first-of-its-kind commercial and supply agreement valued at up to $85 million to automate Retro’s groundbreaking approach.
Retro, supported by a recent investment by Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), is driven by a mission to extend healthy human lifespan by a decade, targeting the cellular drivers of aging. With this partnership, Multiply Labs marks the first commercial sale of its robotic system, in support of Retro’s efforts.
This partnership underscores the versatility of Multiply Labs’ robotic systems, showcasing their wide range of cell therapy applications, which include but are not limited to CAR-T therapy manufacturing. The robotic systems can be used broadly to reduce costs, accelerate product timelines, and improve scalability for different types of cell therapies, as well as to automate manufacturing processes for both autologous and allogeneic therapies. By enabling Retro to manufacture at a cost-efficient scale, Multiply Labs empowers them to expedite the transition from process development to clinical trials and commercialization, ultimately expediting the development and delivery of life-changing therapies to patients worldwide.
“The accelerating rate of change in cell therapies motivated us to look for a manufacturing platform with flexibility at its core,” said Joe Betts-LaCroix, CEO of Retro. “The modular structure of the Multiply Labs robots will help enable Retro to bring its unique cell therapies to patients.”
“This collaboration signifies a profound step forward in our efforts to harness cutting-edge robotic technology that helps patients access life-saving therapies,” said Fred Parietti, Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO of Multiply Labs. “We are thrilled to enter this agreement with Retro, a like-minded organization with a shared commitment to extending human longevity and saving lives. This alliance not only validates the versatility and adaptability of our robotic systems but also propels us closer to our vision of making cell therapies accessible to more patients than ever before.”
While robotics and automation are common approaches to reducing labor costs in other industries, it is more challenging in the biotech field as changing instruments or processes in FDA-approved therapeutics manufacturing requires regulatory resubmissions and lengthy comparability studies. This is why Multiply Labs’ unique approach, in collaboration with an industry-leading partnership ecosystem including Akron Bio, Charles River, Fedegari, GenScript, Wilson Wolf and more, focuses on robotic systems that can operate market-leading GMP instruments from different vendors which are already extensively deployed for cell and gene therapy manufacturing. This technology is designed to enable plug-and-play-like capabilities, faster automation timelines, and fewer regulatory barriers.
