Orgenesis, ATMI sign process development agreement

ATMI will supply disposable manufacturing process for the expansion of patient’s liver cells outside of the body, a step vital in converting a patient’s own liver cells into functioning insulin-producing cells as a treatment for diabetes.

Additionally, the companies signed a subscription agreement pursuant to which ATMI purchased 1,526,718 units of Orgenesis’ securities for gross proceeds of $1.3m.

Orgenesis CEO Sav DiPasqualec said, "We believe the groundbreaking Integrity(R) Xpansion(R) technology from ATMI will allow us to produce a sufficient amount of AIP (Autologous Insulin Producing) cells for transplantation back to the patient’s liver in a highly efficient and cost-effective manner."

ATMI Xpansion bioreactor is a compact, fully controlled and single-use system based on stacked plates prepared from the same plastic material as multiple-tray stacks.

Thus, the cells are easily transferred from multiple-tray stacks process to Xpansion bioreactor.

One single Xpansion bioreactor is designed to offer efficient solution for the production of large amount of cells by replacing up to 200 traditional stacked trays.

ATMI LifeSciences senior vice president and general manager Mario Philips said, "The Integrity Xpansion Multiplate Single-Use Bioreactor technology was specially developed by ATMI for addressing the scaling-up challenges of cell therapy manufacturing processes."