As the cell therapy field has matured, the manufacturing of such therapies becomes a greater focus for companies small and large. Amid this growth, two CDMOs have come together in a merger to expand their reach.

Lykan Bioscience, based in Massachusetts, and RoslinCT, based in Edinburgh, UK, will become a single advanced therapies CDMO. The newly combined group will offer process development expertise as well as cGMP manufacturing for a broad range of autologous and allogeneic cell therapies, along with gene editing and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) capabilities for cell therapy development. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Gene therapy biotech MeiraGTx is looking to get some quick cash and is putting up its manufacturing facilities to do it.

On Wednesday the company announced that it had clinched a loan with affiliates of Perceptive Advisors for up to $100 million, with the biotech getting $75 million upon closing.

According to CEO Alexandria Forbes, the biotech secured the capital by putting up its manufacturing facilities for collateral, which will extend the company’s cash runway for the next two years and into Q4 of 2024. The Sam Waksal-founded biotech intends to use the cash primarily to continue development of its pipeline, preclinical programs and technology platforms.

California-based biotech Synthego has been mainly focused on developing CRISPR-based tools to help researchers in academia and biotech, but its latest move now is turning its attention more towards manufacturing.

The company has broken ground on a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the San Francisco Bay Area, expanding its GMP capacity by 30 times, Synthego said in an email to Endpoints News. The facility is also going to manufacture materials for translational and clinical research development for cell and gene therapies as well.

Gilead and a host of other companies are once again backing T cell immunotherapy biotech AlloVir in a direct offering that will provide the drugmaker with nearly $127 million in proceeds to get its lead therapy to market.

Already stocked with $172 million at the end of June, the Massachusetts biotech wants the additional money to bankroll its three ongoing Phase III trials of its allogeneic T cell therapy posoleucel. The new funds will also support global regulatory filings for the therapy, the company said Wednesday.

When Adrian Woolfson was head of R&D at Sangamo, he began contemplating starting his own company. His goal? Solve some of the key challenges plaguing genomic medicine he’d seen while working on a wide spectrum of Sangamo’s programs.

Then, he met Lachlan MacKinnon, a biotech investor, in London, and the two realized they shared a similar vision, despite their “orthogonal” backgrounds, he told Endpoints News.