French cell and gene therapy manufacturing specialist Astraveus SAS had raises €16.5m in seed money to advance its automated, microfluidic Cell and Gene Therapy manufacturing platform.

The oversubscribed seed round of Astraveus SAS  was led by AdBio partners, co-syndicated with M Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC Inc., and Bpifrance Large Venture. While it is still unclear if autologous cell and gene therapies are really a business case due to its immanently high production costs, the French company is one provider that tries to provide automatation in the mainly manually biomanufacture of cell and gene therapies.

The company’s Lakhesys™ platform is an end-to-end cell foundry that uses single-use, microfluidic bioprocessors to deliver better results with reduced inputs. By removing the need for large-scale infrastructure, reducing costs and processing time, and overcoming the logistical challenges associated with CGT manufacturing, Astraveus is seeking to considerably widen patient access to cell-based cancer therapies and gene therapies for orphan diseases. The  financing will allow the company to significantly advance the development of its technology and expand the team. 

At the core of Lakhesys are microfluidic bioprocessors, which mimic organ perfusion and significantly accelerate the process steps needed to sustain and transform cells into potent therapeutic agents. The high degree of precision and miniaturization enabled by microfluidic bioprocessors allow more efficient manufacturing, reducing labour, floor space and energy requirements, thereby generating less waste and making the process far cheaper and greener.

 While cell and gene therapy is a not to old market, it has received considerable investment – an average of >$18bn per year since 2020 – but the high per patient cost of up to $2m has been a brake on both development of new therapies and deployment of those already identified. By minimizing the changes between process development and the clinic, and offering an immediate modular scalability, Lakhesys promises to save critical time and cost, and has the potential to transform both clinical research and manufacturing of approved products.

Following the fundraising, Alain Huriez of Adbio partners, Christian Uhrich of M Ventures, Fiona MacLaughlin of JJDC Inc., and Laurent Higueret of Bpifrance Large Venture will be joining the board of Astraveus.