Immuneel Therapeutics and THSTI announce strategic partnership to  advance CAR-T cell therapy and Lentiviral Vector manufacturing 

Immuneel Therapeutics Private Limited and the BRIC Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) have officially entered into a  Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to establish a collaboration to qualify, establish, and manage  a cutting-edge facility for the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP)-compliant manufacturing  of CAR-T cell therapies and Lentiviral Vectors (LVVs).  

Strategic collaboration to operationalize clinical pipelines 

The partnership synergizes THSTI’s newly established small-footprint cleanroom facility with  Immuneel’s validated, commercial-grade cell therapy ecosystem and industrial operational expertise.  The primary goal of this collaboration is to operationalize the facility, obtain necessary regulatory  approvals from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), and successfully translate  academic and industrial research pipelines into clinical realities.  

The facility’s functional footprint operates with distinct allocations:  

• Lentiviral Vector (LVV) Suite: running on a campaign mode to manufacture vector lots for Immuneel  programs and generate clinical-grade vectors for academic and industry pipelines.  •CAR-T Manufacturing Suite: using time-block campaigns dedicated to pilot batches, closed  processes, and semi-integrated processes.  
• Quality Control (QC) Lab: maintaining continuous utility for analytics under unified standard  operating procedures.  

A milestone in industry-academia collaboration 

The partnership synergizes THSTI’s newly established cleanroom facility with Immuneel’s validated  commercial-grade cell therapy ecosystem. By uniting academic research capabilities with industrial  operational expertise, the collaboration seeks to accelerate the translation of early-phase clinical  pipelines into viable treatments for patients.  

“Industry and academia collaborations are the need of the hour to bring out the best of India’s  scientific and translational capabilities. This partnership represents a vital step in operationalizing  clinical pipelines, and it begins as one of the many such collaborations needed in India to ensure we  can compete and lead on a global scale.” said Dr Lakshmikanth Gandikota, Chief Scientific Officer,  Immuneel Therapeutics.  

Advancing India’s global competitiveness 

Through this agreement, both parties will work toward obtaining necessary regulatory approvals from  the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO). The joint effort aims to create a shared  capacity manufacturing ecosystem that fosters innovation while enhancing India’s self-reliance in  advanced therapeutics. 

“True innovation thrives when academic research leverages industrial rigour. This strategic alliance  with Immuneel enables THSTI to operationalize clinical pipelines efficiently, ensuring that promising  laboratory-developed constructs are rapidly translated into clinical realities for patients in India and  beyond.” said, Prof. G Karthikeyan, Executive Director, THSTI. 

“This collaboration bridges the critical gap between scientific discovery and clinical delivery. By  partnering with an industry leader to manage our facility operations, we can efficiently navigate  regulatory pathways and ensure our investigator-initiated academic studies have reliable access to  clinical-grade materials.” added Dr Amit Awasthi, Senior Professor, THSTI.