CEVEC closes growth financing round to serve strong demand in viral vector technologies for cell and gene therapies

• With its highly scalable Adenovirus and AAV production technologies, CEVEC provides cutting-edge manufacturing solutions for two of the most widely used gene therapy vectors
• Funding will expand cell line development capacities for ELEVECTA(R) stable AAV producer cell lines
• With ELEVECTA(R) currently being implemented in a second host cell type, an even stronger demand is expected

Cologne, Germany, July 27^th, 2021

CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH (CEVEC), the leading provider of high-performance cell technology for scalable manufacturing of advanced bio-therapeutics, today announced the successful closing of an internal growth financing round. Being profitable in 2020, the company plans to use the funds to accelerate company growth and to further build up cell line development capacities to address the growing market in viral vector production. CEVEC also announced that the ELEVECTA(R) Technology is currently being implemented in HEK293 as a second host cell type. As HEK293 is the most widely used host cell line in gene therapy manufacturing, CEVEC expects to see a significant increase in demand from clients and partners.

"CEVEC is in a very important stage of development. As pharma companies are increasingly building up their gene therapy portfolios, this is the right time to invest and expand the company's cell line development capacities in order to address the growing market for our technologies," said Dr. Nicole Faust, Chief Executive Officer at CEVEC. "We are delighted to experience the strong support of our investors in this capacity expansion program. We want to take the opportunity to thank them for their commitment, realizing we share the same vision - turning CEVEC's technologies into the gold standard for viral vector manufacturing."

"Gene therapies are often the only treatment option for many severe and life-threatening diseases, and they have evolved as one of the main growth drivers in pharma and biotech. Therefore, the potential for novel production technologies as offered by CEVEC is enormous," said Aristotelis Nastos, Head of Life Sciences & Cleantech at NRW.Bank. "We are delighted to be part of this financing round with the aim of accelerating the company's growth and becoming market leader for stable vector manufacturing technologies in cell and gene therapies."

CEVEC provides superior solutions for vector manufacturing

The use of viral vectors in cell and gene therapy is vital. The challenge for the pharmaceutical industry now is to establish production processes that can keep up with the increasing demand for volume and consistent quality. With its highly scalable production cell lines for vectors based on Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) and Adenovirus, CEVEC covers two of the most widely used viral vectors for delivering therapeutic genes to target cells and tissues. The proprietary technologies are characterized by unique advantages in the industry: CEVEC's ELEVECTA(R) Technology for stable AAV production is a revolutionary approach to AAV manufacturing, as the producer cells have all the necessary components stably integrated into the genome, making production processes similar to monoclonal antibody production. The CAP(R) Technology is best suited for the production of Adenoviral vectors, as it is specifically designed to avoid the production of Replication-Competent Adenovirus (RCA).

About CEVEC:

CEVEC is a leading provider of high-performance cell technology for the manufacturing of advanced bio-therapeutics from R&D to manufacturing scale. The company's product portfolio comprises platform technologies for gene therapy viral vectors, vaccines and complex recombinant proteins. With the ELEVECTA(R) Technology, CEVEC offers a unique solution for large-scale production of AAV vectors using helper virus-free producer cell lines with all necessary components stably integrated into the cell. The technology is based on suspension cells and does not require any expensive transfection reagents and cGMP plasmids. CEVEC's CAP(R) Technology based on human suspension cells is the ideal production platform for RCA-free Adenoviral vectors, Lentiviral vectors, viral vaccines and exosomes. With the CAP-Go(R) Technology CEVEC provides a solution to the increasing need for recombinant production of complex and highly glycosylated protein molecules, including laminins, coagulation factors and plasma proteins.

About the gene therapy market:

The global gene therapy market size was valued at approximately USD 2.3 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.4% from 2021 to 2028. With twenty cell and gene therapy products already approved, and over four hundred human gene therapy clinical trials being conducted globally, there is enormous potential for the treatment of rare inherited and other devastating diseases. Moreover, gene therapies are in development for diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's with large numbers of patients, which is expected to lead to a high demand for viral vector manufacturing capacity.

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^[1] Grand View Research (GVR), Gene Therapy Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis (02/2021), Report ID: GVR-2-68038-179-5