Resilience selects VGXI for pDNA supply

VGXI — a contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) focused on gene therapies, RNA medicines, DNA vaccines, and nucleic acid biopharmaceuticals — has inked a multi-year partnership with Resilience.

Under the terms of the deal, Resilience will receive pDNA from VGXI and gain access to the CDMO’s suite of analytics for drug substance, drug product, and cell banking.

A spokesperson for VGXI told BioProcess Insider the goal of this partnership is “twofold.”

Firstly, it aims “to further Resilience's mission of helping researchers make their novel therapies quickly, safely and at scale to address the unmet need for cell and gene therapies (CGTs).” And secondly, VGXI said it is “dedicated” to “revolutionizing” the biopharmaceutical space by manufacturing the “highest quality DNA products and services.”
While financial details remain undisclosed, VGXI said its ability to rapidly produce material and deliver shorter timelines will increase Resilience’s efficiency and capacity to meet the demand in the cell and gene therapy (CGT) space.

“Next-generation therapeutics demand an ongoing evolution of manufacturing technologies and infrastructure that challenges the status quo,” the spokesperson said.

“With VGXI’s […] facilities and technology platforms, our vertically integrated systems, operational redundancies, and well-established quality systems are purposefully designed with tomorrow’s needs in mind. Mitigating the controllable aspects of manufacturing ensures that clients can focus on what matters to them – delivering treatments to patients around the world.”

VGXI’s manufacturing plants are situated north of Houston, Texas. The firm said the location allows it to reach clients worldwide and its “centrally located manufacturing facilities were selected for just that purpose.”

CDMO or no?

Resilience launched as a services firm in 2020 with an aim of tackling the bottlenecks in the advanced therapy space. While many of its collaborations have seen Resilience act as a CDMO, the company has also formed partnerships where it acts as a full development partner, rather than a traditional service provider.

For example, in May 2022 the firm teamed with Be Bio in a risk-sharing partnership. Under the terms of the deal, Resilience agreed to manufacture and supply GMP viral vector and drug product for Be Bio’s rare diseases clinical portfolio.

A year later, Resilience inked a risk-sharing gene therapy collaboration with BridgeBio Pharma. The partnership said it would focus on the manufacture and development of BBP-812, an adeno-associated virus (AAV) 9 gene therapy to remedy Canavan disease, and BBP-631, an AAV 5 gene therapy for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH).