Bracco Upgrading its Cell Therapy Manufacturing Plant for 2027 Production
The Geneva site upgrade will expand Bracco’s GMP production capacity for its microbubble-based cell selection and activation platform, aiming to simplify cell therapy manufacturing and support clinical availability by mid-2027.
Key Points
- Bracco is upgrading its Geneva manufacturing site to support GMP production of its microbubble-based cell selection and activation platform.
- The company says the platform could simplify cell therapy manufacturing by combining cell selection and activation in a single step.
- Bracco expects clinical-grade commercial access to the product by mid-2027.
Facility Upgrade
Bracco Imaging is upgrading its Geneva site to expand GMP manufacturing capacity for its microbubble-based cell selection and activation technology. The project builds on earlier investments at the site dating back to 2019, with GMP readiness and commercial access to the clinical-grade product expected by mid-2027.
The expansion focuses on Bracco’s streptavidin-conjugated lipid-based microbubble platform, intended for cell therapy manufacturing workflows. Bracco says the platform offers an alternative to magnetic bead-based cell enrichment methods that are still widely used. According to the company, its microbubbles can separate and activate specific cell subtypes in a single step, which could reduce process complexity in some workflows.
What Is Changing at the Geneva Site
The facility upgrade includes:
- Automated compounding equipment
- New purification systems
- An open Restricted Access Barrier System (RABS) for aseptic operations
- Expanded batch production capacity
- Improved process monitoring and manufacturing control
The Geneva R&D site has held GMP certification from Swissmedic for nearly 30 years. The new investment is meant to align the facility with current GMP expectations while supporting nonclinical studies and future scaled production of ancillary materials used in advanced cell therapy workflows.
Platform Details
Bracco’s platform uses lipid-based, gas-filled microbubbles for non-magnetic, bead-free, and column-free cell selection and activation. The company says the system supports positive, negative, and sequential cell selection, along with simultaneous selection and activation across a range of immune cell subsets.
According to Bracco, the microbubbles can be removed by popping them or leaving them undisturbed for a short period, which may help avoid magnetic residuals that can interfere with downstream steps such as electroporation, viral or non-viral gene modification, and cell expansion. The company also says the platform is designed to preserve cell viability and function while fitting into automated and closed manufacturing systems.
More information is available at bracco.com/celltherapy.
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