CaroGen Partners with BioCentriq™ for Clinical Production of its Novel Immunotherapy CARG-201

CaroGen has selected BioCentriq as their manufacturing partner for CARG-201, a potential functional cure for patients chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV).

CaroGen Corporation has selected BioCentriq™ as their partner for clinical manufacturing to support Phase 1 clinical trials of its lead immunotherapy candidate, CARG-201 which has been designed to generate multiple hepatitis B virus (HBV) antigens and to stimulate broad immune responses.

“CaroGen’s mission is to develop transformative immunotherapies that will recognize and fight infectious diseases of unmet need, like those generated by HBV, that result in chronic liver conditions and cancer,” said Bijan Almassian, Ph.D. and CaroGen’s co-founder and CEO. “We are thrilled to have received over $5 million funding from National Institute of Health (NIH) to support our HBV preclinical program and have the opportunity to engage an expert and innovative partner like BioCentriq to help validate our methods, further develop our manufacturing processes and ultimately produce high-quality clinical grade materials.”

BioCentriq™ is a New Jersey based full-service concept-to-clinic contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) with a mission to support innovative companies reach clinical success. The company offers process development and clinical manufacturing services for the cell and gene therapy industry along with a workforce development arm designed to help the industry adopt best practices in cell and gene therapy manufacturing.

“Our team is enthusiastic about the opportunity to help CaroGen scale up their technology and manufacture clinical grade materials that can be made available to the patients who need them the most,” said Haro Hartounian, Ph.D., SVP and general manager of BioCentriq. “The work that CaroGen and the team at Yale University has done is truly impressive and we are honored to partner with them as they enter Phase 1 clinical trials.”

CaroGen is a private biotechnology company with a patented and transformative novel immunotherapy and vaccine platform called AVIDIO, or Artificial Virus for Infectious Diseases and Immuno-Oncology. The AVIDIO platform technology was licensed from Yale University for worldwide use by CaroGen for both prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine applications.

CARG-201 is built based on the Artificial Virus for Infectious Diseases and Immuno-Oncology (AVIDIO) platform. AVIDIO of Virus-Like-Vesicles (VLVs) used by CaroGen are an artificial hybrid virus based on an alphavirus RNA replicon and glycoprotein from vesicular stomatitis virus.

According to the Hepatitis B Foundation more than two billion people around the world have been infected with the hepatitis B virus and 30 million people become newly infected each year. The Foundation asserts that HBV is the leading cause of liver cancer and nearly 884,000 people die each year from hepatitis B and related diseases.

About CaroGen 

CaroGen Corporation is an immunotherapy company employing a virus-like vesicle (VLV) platform technology that was pioneered by Professor John Rose at Yale University School of Medicine and is exclusively licensed by CaroGen for the development and commercialization of VLV immunotherapies worldwide. CaroGen has completed preclinical proof-of-concept in HBV animal models and selected a clinical candidate, CARG-201. CaroGen also is exploiting its AVIDIO platform technology to create novel immunotherapies prospectively for colorectal, ovarian, and liver cancers in collaborations with medical researchers at Yale University, University of Connecticut, Brown University, Albany Medical College and Wayne State University.

About BioCentriq 

BioCentriq™ is a cell & gene therapy process development and clinical manufacturing center founded in 2019. The company produces autologous and allogeneic cell therapies and gene therapies, and immunotherapies, including monoclonal antibodies and proteins, and vaccines on behalf of therapy developers. BioCentriq™ also offers customized workforce development programs. Visit http://www.biocentriq.com.

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