Could be, though I do not see them giving away production to hospitals or CRL going forward, though for an initial short period CRL may be a useful supplier of services “partner”, but not a “partnership” in the sense of a source of funding or development. CRL would simply be a supplier for stop-gap supply of DCVax-L unless the two companies arrange to license Flaskworks and create a more collaborative relationship. More likely though, with Advent, I think it will all be in-house mostly.
As for the hospitals, I do think, for whomever ultimately owns this technology, the need to “partner” with local hospitals will be collaborative for expanding use and facilitating rapid delivery of medicines to the hospital and the best hospitals will want NWBO’s facilities nearby.
If the university or hospitals have space a company can lease, that is great. More likely, if it needs to reach the scale people are talking about, which would be far beyond Sawston at some future date if it expands to other indications and wide off-label use, both of which are possible, then they will still need dedicated manufacturing facilities which they can look to lease or build from the best possible local source.
I do not think CRL will necessarily be such a service provider, and I do not think they will need them beyond an early period of scaling to meet demand and most likely CRL will be using their own facilities and their own processes, not necessarily Flaskworks. Licensing Flaskworks to a contract manufacturer bears risks. It might be a possibility, and that might be useful, but such a deal is not necessarily a circumstance to assume.
CRL could also help them build and create their own plant like Advent has done, but I do not think this is CRL’s typical role and I am not sure they want to be in that business.
Moreover, it is likely by that stage that NWBO will have partnered or been bought already, and a deep pocketed Pharma company is most likely to do all of that themselves, but there could be utility partnering with the hospital oncology centers to give them a stake in expanding use and creating the best procedures to get the necessary samples for patients to manufacturing in the best way and also in manufacturing the product really close to them to expedite access to the drug as rapidly as possible.
Just my loose thoughts. I think it is important to look beyond what has been, to now what is likely and possible.
I own NWBO. My posts on iHub are always posted expressly as just my humble opinion (IMHO) and none are advice, just my opinion. I am NOT a financial advisor, and it is assumed that everyone is responsible for their own due diligence.
