Argos Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, has broken ground for a new 100,000-square foot biomanufacturing facility in the Research Triangle Park area in Durham, North Carolina. The facility will support automated production of the company’s Arcelis-based personalized immunotherapy product candidates for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases.

Arcelis is a fully personalized immunotherapy technology that captures mutated and variant antigens that are specific to each patient´s disease. It is designed to overcome tumor and disease-induced immunosuppression in cancer and HIV by eliciting a durable memory T cell response. The Arcelis process uses only a small tumor or blood sample, along with the patient's own dendritic cells, which are collected and optimized following a single leukapheresis procedure. The proprietary process uses RNA isolated from the patient´s disease sample (e.g., serves as the antigen payload) to program dendritic cells to target disease antigens. The activated, antigen-loaded dendritic cells are then formulated into the patient´s plasma and administered via intradermal injection.

Argos’ most advanced product candidate, AGS-003, is being evaluated in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma. The company is also developing a second Arcelis-based product candidate, AGS-004, for the treatment of HIV, currently being evaluated in a Phase II clinical trial.

Source: Argos Therapeutics