SAN JOSE, California & WASHINGTON — The American Red Cross Cell and Gene Therapy Solutions (CGTS) division, a leading single-source provider for allogeneic cell therapy source material, has selected Accellix, Inc., the developer of the point-of-need testing automated flow cytometry platform, to provide Accellix instruments and assays at its CGTS collection sites to improve characterization of source materials used for cell therapy development. As the cell therapy industry continues to grow, the need for readily accessible, reliable, high-quality source materials becomes increasingly essential. The implementation by Red Cross of the Accellix technology into their blood characterization workflow at the point of collection will help meet the needs of cell therapy companies throughout the development process.
“We are looking forward to working with the American Red Cross to provide accurate and reproducible allogeneic blood donor characterization for the growing cell therapy sector,” said Rey Mali, Chief Business Officer of Accellix. “Our automated platform delivers rapid, precise, reproducible results, helping ensure that critical source materials are characterized at the time of collection and shipped in a timely manner. This relationship is an important milestone in our mission to bring efficient and reliable QC to every aspect of cell therapy development and manufacturing.”
The American Red Cross Cell and Gene Therapy Solutions team is dedicated to providing critical support to the rapidly advancing field of cell therapy. By leveraging its nationwide footprint and over a decade of experience in cell therapy manufacturing, donor resourcing, and clinical apheresis, it’s able to provide source material and collection services for cell therapy companies, supporting bench research through to late-stage development. The Cell and Gene Therapy Solutions team serves as a single point of contact within a centrally managed apheresis network to access a diverse donor base and apheresis collections across the country, playing key roles in the development of drug therapies based on blood components.
As a leading single-source provider for allogeneic collections, Red Cross leukopak products are derived from normal peripheral blood via leukapheresis at FDA-registered collection centers from IRB-consented, pre-screened healthy donors. As part of its customization and extensive testing capabilities, the Red Cross will now include leukopak product characterization for lymphocytes (T, B, NK) within 30 minutes (at the point of collection) using the Accellix Platform, enabling the shipment of leukopak products with a Certificate of Analysis (COA) immediately following collection. By incorporating Accellix instruments into its workflow, the organization is ensuring that cell therapy companies benefit from accurate and accelerated source material and COA availability, helping to shorten development timelines and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
“Integrating Accellix’s innovative technology into our operations allows us to rapidly and accurately characterize allogeneic donor samples, helping meet the needs of our growing cell therapy partners with confidence and efficiency as part of our ongoing commitment to supporting this important therapeutic field,” said Samuel A. Molina, PhD, Executive Director of Cell and Gene Therapy Operations at the Red Cross.
Accellix is a biotechnology company dedicated to developing and commercializing the Accellix Platform to enable its customers in the field of cell and gene therapy to meet their critical QC requirements as they advance life changing therapies benefiting patients worldwide. Accellix empowers its customers by migrating their existing cellular assays to the Accellix Platform. The Accellix Platform is a benchtop flow cytometer operating and reading microfluidic cartridges integrated with dry reagents. It provides unmatched reproducibility and ease of use for automated multi-parametric cellular analysis. For more information visit www.accellix.com.
Efthalia Gerasimopoulos (egerasimopoulos@accellix.com)
Colleen Maiden (colleen.maiden@redcross.org)