NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[hyperopia]

bio, I’m assuming the pictures of the Flaskworks EDEN system from the ASCO slides are current. That’s clearly not the original version, and it has been developed for commercial use with what appears to be additional sensors and bio analyzers and other electronics, but yes, it has a cartridge for a single patient, and it appears to be in an incubator. So this is still a bench-top version 2.0, which has the minimum required upgrade that would be necessary for commercialization: digitization for in-process monitoring and controls, and data capture of all the culturing information for the Electronic Batch Record. Agree that it’s far from ideal, but it’s a big accomplishment for Shashi Murthy and his team, and I certainly don’t want to diminish it. I’m sure there will be continued development of the process and Flaskworks’ system going forward.

I think automating the entire process will likely cut the total manufacturing time from 8 days to 7 days, but the cells will culture for ~5 days in the differentiation media, and another half day in the maturation media. I don't think it's possible to speed that part up more than has already been done.