Multiply Labs, a robotics firm, and Retro Biosciences, which is developing therapies to address age-related diseases, signed an agreement valued at up to $85 million to automate Retro’s approach to target 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.
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, according to Multiply Labs.
“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,” added Fred Parietti, PhD, 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.”
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’ approach, in collaboration with a partnership ecosystem (including companies such as Akron Bio, Charles River, Fedegari, and GenScript) 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, pointed out Parietti, adding that this technology is designed to enable plug-and-play-like capabilities, faster automation timelines, and fewer regulatory barriers.
