Government grant
Cell therapy specialist Intercytex plc and its partner, the Automation Partnership (TAP), have won a £1.85 million grant by the UK Department of Trade and Industry through the Technology Programme to develop an automated manufacturing process for Intercytex’s hair regeneration therapy, ICX-TRC.
The grant will be used primarily to develop a dedicated robotic system to support the commercial-scale production of dermal papilla cells, the main cells involved in hair regeneration, and the key component of ICX-TRC.
The Intercytex technology centres on extracting dermal papilla cells from a small hair follicle biopsy at the back of the head, multiplying the cells in a proprietary culture system and then re-implanting the cells back in the head to induce new hairs. It is vital that each person’s cells remain isolated throughout the multiplication process.
The robotic system developed by TAP has an established track record in processing many different cell samples simultaneously in high throughput drug screening. The DTI grant will be used to adapt this technology to produce autologous - that is sourced from and returned to the same individual - human cells in a reliable, efficient way and at a scale that can handle a large number of samples.
Nick Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Intercytex said, “The large-scale production of ICX-TRC will be key to its commercial success and this collaboration will support our scale-up work.”
Intercytex and TAP were awarded their grant out of total grant funding of £12.6 million available from DTI and the Research Councils for collaboration in regenerative medicine technologies
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