CIRM invests $10 million to build California Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing Network

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the world’s largest institution dedicated to regenerative medicine, awarded $10 million to five facilities as part of the first phase to build a California Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing Network.

The awards include:

Application #	Program Title	Principal Investigator/Institution	Amount
INFR5-14663	Laboratory for Cell and Gene Medicine: A partner in the California Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing Network	Steven Feldman — Stanford University	$2,000,000
INFR5-14739	Enhancing California’s Manufacturing of Leading-Edge Cell & Gene Therapies	Dawn Ward — University of California, Los Angeles	$2,000,000
INFR5-14756	Scalable Expansion for Stem Cell-Derived Therapies	Taby Ahsan — Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope	$1,998,174
INFR5-14636	A comprehensive biomanufacturing center solving bottlenecks in cell and gene therapy manufacturing to accelerate new therapies for California patients	Dhruv Sareen — Cedars-Sinai Medical Center	$2,000,000
INFR5-14719	Open Manufacturing Network for Cell and Gene Therapies	Brian Rudolph Shy — University of California, San Francisco	$1,999,933

The statewide network is designed to overcome manufacturing bottlenecks that have delayed or stalled development and approval of regenerative medicines. 

“These awards are a critical first step in formation of the manufacturing network and will help California academic GMP manufacturing facilities raise the quality and competency of cell and gene therapy manufacturing across the state,” says CIRM Senior Director of Business Development & Alliance Management Dr. Shyam Patel. “Plus, these awards will also provide manufacturing career training opportunities for Californians, which align perfectly with CIRM’s mission.”  

Phase one of the awards will fund California non-profit GMP manufacturing facilities for two years. Each facility will support in accelerating and de-risking the path to commercialization for cell and gene therapies, advancing industry standards and quality by design, and building a diverse and highly skilled manufacturing workforce in California.  

Phase two of the awards will fund collaborative partnerships that will scale efforts from the first phase across the network. 

In addition to manufacturing awards, CIRM awarded $10.6 million to Dr. Pei Wang of Eureka Therapeutics, Inc. for a phase 1 clinical trial to assess the safety and tolerability of a cell therapy for pediatric liver cancer. 

In the proposed therapy, T cells from the patient’s immune system are modified to specifically target and kill cancer cells. If successful, the proposed therapy may offer a potential treatment for relapsed/refractory pediatric liver cancers, for which there are currently no approved therapies.

The clinical award is part of CIRM’s CLIN2 awards, which support with the completion of a clinical trial for a regenerative medicine-based therapy (stem cell-based or gene therapy) that addresses an unmet medical need.   

This award brings the total of CIRM-funded clinical trials to 91.  

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About the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)

At CIRM, we never forget that we were created by the people of California to accelerate stem cell treatments to patients with unmet medical needs, and act with a sense of urgency to succeed in that mission.

To meet this challenge, our team of highly trained and experienced professionals actively partners with both academia and industry in a hands-on, entrepreneurial environment to fast track the development of today’s most promising stem cell technologies.

With $5.5 billion in funding and more than 150 active stem cell programs in our portfolio, CIRM is one of the world’s largest institutions dedicated to helping people by bringing the future of cellular medicine closer to reality.

For more information go to www.cirm.ca.gov