Capsid Experts Hope to Slash the Cost of Gene Therapies

A company with expertise in capsid discovery say they have boosted adeno-associated virus (AAV) yields ten-fold compared to the industry standard. Affinia Therapeutics believes that, by adopting their methodical approach to AAV manufacturing, the industry could improve patient access to gene therapies by dramatically cutting costs.

“Often in industry articles, you hear how manufacturing costs remain a barrier to making [AAV] a more utilizable platform,” explains Rob May, chief technical operations officer at Affinia.

“Our message is that this really isn’t the case. The quality and manufacturability to reduce the cost of goods are there if you use all the [techniques] available today.”

According to May and colleague Matt Edwards, head of process science at Affinia, the company carefully screened for what they felt was the best commercially available cell line for AAV manufacturing.

Subsequently, they picked the best from a large selection of transfection reagents and, by redesigning the plasmids used for transient transfection, were able to dramatically increase the yields of AAV.

“We looked at a lot of different levers we could pull,” Edwards explains. “But much of the most impactful work we’ve done is on the plasmids and how they’re designed.”

The company says their boost in yields means they can now manufacture AAVs in a 50-liter rather than a 500-liter bioreactor. A smaller bioreactor, Edwards explains, is cheaper to run.

Affinia is now in negotiations with half a dozen companies to license their technology, May says. “We’ve presented this technology multiple times and had people come to us and say ‘Hey, we want to learn more’.”

He adds, “And then, what we want to try to do is for people to have the technology in their own hands, as they have their own manufacturing platforms, cell lines, and ways of doing things.”

Going forward, Affinia hopes today’s technology will help revolutionize the industry, allowing AAVs to be produced in the low single-digit thousands of dollars, rather than upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars, as can happen currently.

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