Clinical phase cell and gene therapy company Elicera Therapeutics AB (Nasdaq First North Growth Market:ELIC) said on Tuesday that it has secured SEK5m in grants from Swedish innovation agency Vinnova.

This funding will be used to develop an automated process for CAR T-cell manufacturing.

Elicera Therapeutics and its collaborators at Karolinska Institute and their production unit, Vecura at Karolinska Sjukhuset, Uppsala University and Akademiska Sjukhuset in Uppsala are preparing for a clinical phase I/II-study using Elicera's armoured CAR T-cell therapy, ELC-301, for treatment of B-cell malignancies.

Vinnova has granted SEK5m to the project to develop an automated CAR T-cell manufacturing process to be implemented as Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). The manufacturing process is expected to simplify the current labour consuming manufacturing process, de-centralise the manufacturing sites and thus make CAR T-cell therapies more accessible to cancer patients, Elicera said.

(EUR1=SEK10.32)