Thermo Fisher & Novo Nordisk Drive Future of Cell Therapy

Thermo Fisher Scientific and Novo Nordisk Foundation Cellerator are working together to drive operational excellence in the Cellerator's new GMP facility and innovation hub, set to open in 2027 at the Technical University of Denmark.

The facility is part of a shared vision to transform the future of cell therapy, which involves transplanting healthy, living cells to cure patients with chronic or life-threatening diseases including type 1 diabetes, kidney disease, Parkinson's and more.

The result could be a new wave of innovative, effective pharmaceutical drugs and solutions leading to superior patient outcomes.

On the 31st of October colleagues from Thermo Fisher and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Cellerator gathered to celebrate this collaboration, listening to a speech by keynote speaker Dr Kapil Bharti of the National Institutes of Health.

The hub is tackling one of the biggest challenges with cell therapy research- a lack of suitable facilities. 

How the facility will drive the future of pharmaceutical manufacturing

Cell Therapy is a rapidly evolving medical field that not only treats the symptoms of diseases but has the potential to cure chronic or life-threatening diseases like chronic heart failure and cancer. 

Despite this many promising cell therapy candidates do not reach clinical trials. One driving reason for this is a lack of facilities capable of manufacturing cell therapy products in large, consistent quantities.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation Cellerator addresses this gap, with state-of-the-art laboratory facilities dedicated to further developing tested cell therapies and manufacturing these consistently and at scale for early clinical trials. 

The hub will support a diversity of cell therapy types, including those from adult stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells in addition to providing services including product GMP manufacturing, process development, regulatory support and product release. 

The field of cell therapy remains highly explorative, so the hub will provide built-in flexibility with its types and services to address changing demands. 

The hub's location at the Technical University of Denmark enables the Cellerator team to work closely with DTU in both the construction and operational phases.

The DTU has extensive expertise in cell manufacturing and related technologies, and the Cellerator will serve public and private clients from academia, biotech and the global pharmaceutical industry.

The partnership between ThermoFisher and Novo Nordisk is driving this hub forward, building on years of previous successful collaboration.

ThermoFisher & Novo Nordisk 

Thermo Fisher Scientific and Novo Nordisk have worked closely over the past three years, especially in enhancing pharmaceutical manufacturing for Novo Nordisk's treatments to tackle diabetes and obesity.

By using its expertise in bioprocessing and manufacturing, Thermo Fisher has helped Novo Nordisk effectively scale up production capacity and improve biologic production efficiency. It provided Novo Nordisk with specialised equipment including chromatography systems, bioreactors and purification systems which have optimised the scalability and efficiency of production. 

This has enabled the company to accelerate timelines, enhance production flexibility and reduce contamination risks for its diabetes medications.

Additionally, Thermo Fisher has worked to automate and digitalise Novo Nordisk's key manufacturing processes, integrating its automation and data analytics solutions.

Novo Nordisk has subsequently streamlined quality control, reduced manual errors, enhanced monitoring and achieved more consistent product outcomes. 

A key aim of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Cellerator team, headed by CEO Thomas H.R. Carlsen, has been to build links with researchers, manufacturers and other cell therapy development facilities. 

Through collaboration with Thermo Fisher and creating the new GMP Innovation hub, both companies are helping to create a better future for cell therapy and broader pharmaceutical manufacturing.

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