MaxCyte buddies-up with Gilead subsidiary

Cell-based medicines and life sciences company MaxCyte confirmed on Monday that it has entered into a research agreement with Kite, a subsidiary of American biotechnology giant Gilead.

The agreement between the two parties will see Kite gain access to MaxCyte's flow electroporation technology platform, which can transfect any cell type using a single, chemically-defined electroporation buffer, to enable non-viral cell engineering.

The London-listed company’s strategy is to provide the technology to partners in order to advance the development of cutting-edge medicines, particularly in cell therapy, including the use of gene editing tools in the treatment of inherited genetic diseases and immuno-oncology approaches to treating cancer.

Kite, meanwhile, is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of cancer immunotherapies with a goal of providing rapid, long-term, durable response and eliminating the burden of chronic care.

Doug Doerfler, president and chief executive of MaxCyte, said: "We're excited to provide Kite the ability to leverage our versatile cell engineering platform to enable gene-editing technologies for research and development of important new therapeutics. This agreement further underlines MaxCyte's position as a leader in non-viral cell engineering for cell therapies."

MaxCyte’s shares were up 0.51% at 199.00p at 1255 GMT.