CCRM, its contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) subsidiary OmniaBio, and Irish biotechnology company Avectas have entered into an agreement to evaluate an automated manufacturing platform designed to support improvements in cell therapy production.

The collaboration will assess how Avectas’ integrated manufacturing platform could align with CCRM’s international manufacturing model and support OmniaBio’s efforts to develop more standardised and scalable production workflows for advanced therapies.

According to the organisations, the evaluation will focus on manufacturing challenges commonly associated with cell therapies, including process consistency, scale-up capability, operational efficiency and the ability to support broader commercial deployment.

Cell and gene therapies continue to attract investment across the life sciences sector, but manufacturing remains one of the most significant barriers to wider adoption. Production processes are often complex, labour intensive and difficult to scale, creating pressure across development and commercial supply chains.

OmniaBio currently operates as a specialist cell and gene therapy CDMO and is developing an AI-enabled manufacturing environment intended to improve production consistency and efficiency through greater use of automation and digital workflows. The organisations will assess whether Avectas’ platform can complement these objectives and support more regional manufacturing capability.

The announcement also carries relevance for Ireland’s life sciences ecosystem. Avectas chief executive Michael Maguire highlighted the potential opportunity associated with future manufacturing development linked to Ireland’s advanced therapies sector.

The collaboration reflects broader industry movement towards industrialising advanced therapy manufacturing through greater automation, standardisation and flexible production models. As cell and gene therapies move further into commercial stages, manufacturing capability is increasingly becoming a strategic differentiator across the sector.

Read more about developments in advanced therapy manufacturing and life sciences production through the original source.