The Sawston certification stays with the Sawston building. Advent has been hired to “operate” the Sawston facility. If Advent leaves, do you think they take the certification with them? No, the certification stays with the facility. The smaller King’s College lab that has been producing the smaller quantities of DCVax for the specials program has also received its certification. But no one can move that certification to Sawston, because it stays at Kings. So when Northwest refers to the certification of Sawston as the certification of Sawston, they are being entirely accurate in their description because its Sawston, and Sawston alone, that is being certified. And since Northwest owns the extremely long-term building lease (not Advent) on Sawston, and they own the equipment there at Sawston, the certificate is therefore, their asset, not Advent’s. Advent was partially hired as the operator of Sawston to get the building certified, and that is what they are in the process of doing.
If Advent were to leave and take their people elsewhere, could they take the Sawston certification elsewhere? No.
If Northwest were to add some of their own staff at Sawston to Advent’s staff operating the facility there, would the certification be voided? No.
And finally, have you thought about what happens to Advent’s staff as Northwest transitions to the Flaskworks equipment? Probably not. But you should, because employing the Flaskworks system in the Sawston building is ultimately Northwest’s plan. And when Flaskworks is in place, it will eliminate the need for a good part of the clean room staffing, resulting in a lowered price for DCVax-L, as well as less staffing required by whoever is operating the Sawston facility on behalf of Northwest.
Northwest doesn’t PR the achievements of CRL/Cognate because their achievements are their own, and do not reside to Northwest. As their US operator, Cognate/CRL’s achievements will certainly help Northwest, when they begin manufacturing DCVax_l in the U.S. Getting Sawston certified through their UK operator Advent will be an achievement that Northwest can claim as their own.
