VIVEbiotech is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) focused on lentiviral vector production and related process development and analytical testing for biopharmaceutical companies. The company operates a state-of-the-art, 3,000 sq. m. (32,000 sq. ft.) GMP-compliant facility in San Sebastian, Gipuzkoa, Spain. Its team of over 140 employees supports development and manufacturing for in vivo and ex vivo cell and gene therapy projects. VIVEbiotech provides end-to-end services including process development, manufacturing and analytical testing. The company intends to use new funding to enable its lentiviral vector manufacturing in Spain and to support execution of a pipeline of customer projects. Management is led by CEO Jon Alberdi. VIVEbiotech, founded in 2015 and based in San Sebastián, develops and produces lentiviral vectors used to deliver gene therapies for indications including rare diseases and cancer (immuno-oncology, CAR-Ts). The company supplies vectors to a growing number of therapy developers and currently participates in about thirty international projects with prominent gene-therapy companies. Rising demand for viral vectors exceeds existing supply, creating a market opportunity and a constraint on future therapy development and commercialization. VIVEbiotech plans to expand its production capacity to address that demand. The entry of institutional investors is intended to give solidity to the shareholder base and enable execution of that scale-up strategy. The article notes a commitment from CDTI that will support these expansion plans. Vivebiotech is a contract development and manufacturing organization (originated by Fundación Inbiomed) specialized in the design and GMP production of lentiviral vectors, core reagents for personalized therapies such as gene therapy and CAR‑T. The company says it is the only firm in Spain producing lentiviral vectors for clinical trials and currently supplies vectors for 16 gene‑therapy projects, six of which involve CAR‑T. Clients are located across Europe, the United States, Israel and Australia. Vivebiotech employs 36 people and plans to grow headcount by about 25%. Financially, this financing follows a €1.0M capital increase a year earlier and brings the company’s total capitalization to €7.1M. The firm plans to expand its laboratories with three new clean rooms, reach 600 m² of clean‑room space with eight nanobioreactors and two large bioreactors, and increase production capacity roughly 30‑fold to serve late‑stage clinical trials and commercial scale.

Total raised

$5M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Jul 2020