The day will feature international experts in the field who will make presentations on strategic and technical aspects of gene therapy.
Dr. Samulski, considered the founder of gene therapy and who will participate in the symposium, said that “The production of viral vectors plays a fundamental role for the success of gene therapy” and added that “the pillar of production is absolutely necessary to eradicate genetic diseases and make therapies accessible to all patients.”.
Joseph Lillegard will also be participating, who is a professor at the Mayo Clinic in the USA, a pediatrician and a researcher, who will explain how gene therapy with lentiviral vectors acts in animal models with a metabolic disease. Lillegard affirms that “it is a pioneering experience that can be a great advance for the field“.
The place chosen for the celebration of the Symposium has been San Sebastián since the Basque Country registers a high concentration of companies dedicated to gene therapy and advanced therapies. Companies such as VIVEbiotech and VIRALGEN have made San Sebastián a world leader in the manufacture of viral vectors for gene therapy clinical trials.
About VIVEbiotech
VIVEbiotech, located in the Gipuzkoa Science and Technology Park in San Sebastián, was created in 2015 and currently has 36 employees.
VIVEbiotech is in a growth phase with the objective of multiplying its production capacity by 30. To do this, three new cleanrooms with large capacity bioreactors will be built and workforce will be expanded by 25%.
The company collaborates with world-class entities. The European Commission, through the EASME agency that analyzes the projects submitted to the “H2020-SME Inst-2016-2017” program, awarded the LENTISOMA project with the Seal of Excellence, in competition with other European projects.
About VIRALGEN
Founded in 2017, through a joint venture between Askbio Biopharmaceuticals and Columbus Venture Partners (a Spanish venture capital group), Viralgen is a pharmaceutical a GMP-certificated rAAV-manufacturing laboratory which distributes its products worldwide. They have licensed AskBio´s Pro10 ™ cell line technology, which allows for greater scaling-up, better yields and greater accuracy of the rAAV therapy. Based in the Miramón Technology Park in San Sebastián, Spain, Viralgen is a company that produces rAAV gene therapy treatments to allow pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to accelerate the creation of new therapies to improve the lives of patients.