The Northern Alliance for Advanced Therapies Treatment Centre (NA-ATTC) has added three new partners into its setup. The additions will support the centre’s acceleration of advanced therapies.
The ATTC is coordinated as part of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, and operates within the NHS framework.
Achilles Therapeutics, VascVersa, and pHion Therapeutics join the NA-ATTC, with the centre now extending to Northern Ireland. Formed in 2018, NA-ATTC is a consortium of 20 industry, NHS, and academic organisations with the purpose of bringing advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) to the North of England and Scotland, before bringing them to the national level.
Achilles Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, which develops precision T cell therapies that target clonal neoantigens – protein markers unique to an individual’s cancer cells. It currently has two ongoing Phase I/IIa trials for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and metastatic melanoma.
The Belfast-based pHion Therapeutics is a drug delivery technology company, which is developing two cellular entry methods including nanoparticles, while VascVersa is a new regenerative company spun out of Queen’s University Belfast focused on providing solutions to chronic wounds.
The centre also includes collaborations with Chiesi Limited, Cytiva, NHS Blood and Transport, and the University of Edinburgh, among others.
This latest announcement comes as the NA-ATTC joined forces with iMatch (Innovate Manchester Advanced Therapy Centre Hub) to scale up the activity and improve access to ATMPs for patients. iMatch has commercial partners such as Aptus Clinical, AstraZeneca, and Formedix.
The ATTC also has a Midlands and Wales treatment centre, MW-ATTC.
