Minaris and CGT Catapult team up to tackle delivery and safety bottlenecks in cell and gene therapies

A practical partnership focused on how therapies get into patients and how safe they are

Minaris and the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult said today they will collaborate to develop and test delivery methods for cell and gene therapies, and to build out multimodal biosafety testing. The deal pairs Minaris’s contract development and manufacturing capabilities with CGT Catapult’s technical know‑how in delivery technologies and safety evaluation. The announcement frames the work as strategic support for developers wrestling with the practical problem of getting complex therapies to tissues safely and reliably — an issue that holds up many programs, from early research to clinical manufacturing.

Scope and concrete elements of the collaboration

The companies described the collaboration as an R&D and testing partnership that will target delivery platforms used in cell and gene therapies and expand testing methods to better detect and mitigate safety risks. The scope includes laboratory and translational work on delivery vehicles and routes of administration, plus shared efforts to validate multimodal biosafety assays that look beyond single tests to a broader view of safety.

Geographically, the work will be centered where CGT Catapult operates its specialist labs, with Minaris contributing manufacturing know‑how and access to scale‑up capabilities. The announcement did not disclose financial terms or an equity stake; instead it emphasized shared resources, technical staff exchanges and staged project milestones. No fixed duration was specified, but both parties described the work as phased, with near‑term feasibility studies followed by longer validation projects that could feed into commercial service offerings.

How this changes Minaris’s CDMO story and who benefits commercially

For Minaris, the deal is a practical play rather than a marketing headline. It helps the company move from offering standard manufacturing toward a more differentiated service: helping clients solve delivery and safety puzzles that otherwise slow clinical progress. That matters because many therapeutic candidates stall not for lack of potency but because they lack a robust, regulatory‑acceptable way to get the product to the right cells without causing harm.

Investors should see this as a position‑enhancing move: if Minaris can combine manufacturing scale with validated delivery and biosafety testing, it becomes a one‑stop partner for developers who need both process development and risk management. That could translate into longer, higher‑value contracts — developers tend to consolidate partners when a provider reduces development risk. From the therapy developer side, access to an integrated workflow that covers delivery validation and biosafety testing can shorten timelines and reduce the number of handoffs that generate delays or regulatory questions.

Where this fits in the competitive landscape and industry trends

The collaboration lands in a crowded but fragmented field. Several CDMOs are expanding from pure manufacturing into services such as analytics, regulatory support and specialized testing. At the same time, a growing group of technology firms focus narrowly on delivery platforms — viral vectors, lipid nanoparticles, cell‑penetrating systems — and on safety assays tuned to gene editing and cell therapies.

Regulators are increasingly focused on delivery and safety signals for next‑generation therapies, which creates demand for validated, multimodal testing approaches. That regulatory attention gives partnerships like this commercial leverage: companies that can demonstrate robust delivery validation and safety data are easier to license and to shepherd through trials. In short, Minaris and CGT Catapult are aligning with a wider move toward integrated solutions that address both manufacturing and the science of getting therapies to work in humans.

Risks to watch and milestones that will matter

Key risks are technical and commercial. Technically, delivery solutions that work in small studies often stumble at scale or in different patient populations; translating lab‑scale proof into a reproducible manufacturing process is hard. Commercially, Minaris must show that these services attract enough paying clients to justify investment in staff and lab capacity.

Near‑term milestones investors should watch: published feasibility data from initial delivery studies, completion of the first validated multimodal biosafety assay, and the signing of the first client contracts that use the combined offering. Medium‑term milestones include any regulatory filings that reference the collaboration’s data and the conversion of pilot projects into recurring, fee‑for‑service work. Failure to hit early validation steps or to convert pilots into paying work would be the main negative signals.

What the companies said and what comes next

The joint press release framed the work as complementary: “We believe combining Minaris’s development and manufacturing experience with CGT Catapult’s delivery and safety expertise will accelerate safe, effective therapies to patients,” the companies said in the announcement. CGT Catapult added that the collaboration will focus on establishing test methods that regulators and developers can rely on.

Operational next steps are staged feasibility projects and shared personnel exchanges, followed by validation projects intended to produce methods that can be offered as services. For verification and the full text of the companies’ statements, readers should consult the official press release published by the two organizations.

Sources

• prnewswire.com