WuXi AppTec Completes Acquisition of OXGENE To Further Strengthen Cell and Gene Therapy Service Offerings for Global Customers

WuXi AppTec has announced that it has completed the acquisition of OXGENE, a pioneering United Kingdom-based contract research and development organization that designs and develops scalable gene therapy technologies. This acquisition enables WuXi AppTec to offer its customers end-to-end support in the creation and development of cutting-edge cell and gene therapies for patients in need worldwide.

OXGENE will become a fully-owned subsidiary of WuXi Advanced Therapies (WuXi ATU), WuXi AppTec’s cell and gene therapy Contract Testing, Development and Manufacturing Organization (CTDMO) business unit.  WuXi ATU’s integrated platforms transform the development, testing, manufacturing, and commercialization of cell and gene therapy products and accelerate their time to market.  OXGENE, which will retain its name, will be WuXi ATU’s first facility in Europe and will further enhance these industry-leading capabilities.

Since its founding in 2011, OXGENE has offered discovery and biomanufacturing solutions to the cell and gene therapy industries through novel technologies and contract research solutions.  It also provides manufacturing systems that deliver exceptional scalability.  OXGENE’s novel TESSA technology for adeno-associated viral (AAV) manufacturing and XLenti stable solutions for lentiviral manufacturing simplify cell and gene therapy manufacturing while significantly reducing costs.

“OXGENE is proud to have invented a range of next-generation platforms that address the complexities of viral vector manufacturing for gene and cell therapies,” said Dr. Ryan Cawood, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of OXGENE.  “We are excited to join the team at WuXi ATU and to work together to scale up our technologies as a combined business, which will strengthen and broaden our service offerings for customers, improving by orders of magnitude the scale and cost of bringing cell and gene therapies to market.  The benefits will be significant for the industry and for patients worldwide.”

“We are delighted to welcome OXGENE to WuXi ATU,” said Dr. David Chang, Chief Executive Officer of WuXi ATU. “By combining WuXi ATU’s world-class cell and gene therapy CTDMO platform with OXGENE’s innovative capabilities, we will be able to provide transformative solutions for our customers.  This business combination represents a significant step in our ongoing effort to enable our customers and partners worldwide to deliver more effective and accessible advanced therapies to patients globally.”