First commercial clinical use will be at Royal Perth Hospital for cutting-edge tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapies.
Melbourne-based Xcell Biosciences Australia Pty Ltd (Xcellbio), an Australian affiliate of the San Francisco-based instrumentation company focused on cell and gene therapy applications, has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Royal Perth Hospital to use its AVATAR Foundry instrument in a trial focused on rapid manufacturing of more potent cancer-killing cell therapies.
Planet Innovation (PI), an Australian head-quartered medtech innovation company, is Xcellbio’s contract development and manufacturing partner. PI worked with Xcellbio over the past 2 years to develop the AVATAR Foundry instrument at its innovation headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. Planet Innovation will support Xcellbio with additional on the ground technical support for the instrumentation during the trial.
Cell therapies have shown remarkable potential for treating cancer. From the first bone marrow transplant in the 1950s through to the first ‘engineered’ cell therapies of the 1990s, and right up to current day, the concept of taking human immune cells and leveraging their own power to cure cancer has been a goal of modern medicine. The first solid-tumor targeting immune cell therapies generated from tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were approved for commercial use in 2024 with the first approved indication in skin melanoma. However, these workflows are in large part manual, time intensive, and the therapies experience challenges in retaining their cancer-killing potency within a solid tumor environment. The Foundry was built to address this unmet need in the global fight against cancer.
Solid tumors, such as skin, bone, lung, and breast cancer, make up about 90% of all cancers, however traditional cell therapies are not effective in targeting them due to the harsh nature of the solid tumor microenvironment (TME). The Foundry provides a type of bootcamp for these immune cells, enabling metabolic priming during manufacturing to achieve not only have higher cancer-killing efficiency in TME conditions, but also equipping the cells with a longer persistence inside the tumor.
“Our long-term partnership with Planet Innovation and now our agreement with the fantastic team at Royal Perth Hospital is an opportunity to expand the availability of these life-saving therapies to patients,” said Brian Feth, co-founder and CEO at Xcellbio. “We are excited by the prospect of improving cell therapy manufacturing and to make these important treatments a more feasible option for patients in Australia and, ultimately, around the world.”
“Xcellbio is challenging the status quo and exploring new frontiers to treating solid tumor cancers that affect millions of patients globally. PI is proud to stand alongside them as part of their team and through our talent and technical facilities bring their vision to life.” said Stuart Elliott, co-founder and CEO at Planet Innovation.
Process development and clinical manufacturing at Royal Perth Hospital are due to commence in mid-2025 and run through the next few years with instruments manufactured and shipped directly from Planet Innovation’s facilities.
