CPTx has announced the appointment of David Maier to lead the contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) business unit focused on ssDNA supply called gxstrands.
Maier will build strategic partnerships and expand capacity and service breadth to meet growing demand for custom ssDNA manufacturing solutions, thereby enabling next-generation genetic medicines.
“Our unique fermentation-based upstream and precision downstream purification process delivers high-fidelity ssDNA with customisable lengths and diverse topologies at scalable yields,” said David Maier, President of gxstrands.
“We are building a best-in-class CDMO partner for the future of gene and cell therapy and other genetic medicines applications, and I am excited to help grow this business globally."
“During the past decade, our team has developed and refined scalable ssDNA manufacturing processes,” said Hendrik Dietz, PhD, founder of CPTx.
“We are excited to have David leading gxstrands, which now leverages this foundation to deliver high-fidelity, configurable ssDNA to customers worldwide."
"CPTx will remain focused on advancing novel ssDNA-powered in vivo gene therapies through both our internal in vivo CAR-T pipeline and collaborations with external partners.”
The lead in vivo CAR-T therapy programme at CPTx leverages immune-silent ssDNA and lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery to enable repeat dosing and controllable, durable activity, which is difficult to achieve with viral vectors or mRNA.
With CPTx focused on clinical development progress, the gxstrands business will evolve to supply critical ssDNA for CPTx therapeutic pipeline programmes and for the global biopharmaceutical industry.
Mr Maier has an MBA from Cornell’s Johnson School and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University. He has led a global business unit at West Pharmaceutical Services, developed new biologics CDMO offerings at Lonza and held various leadership, transactional and strategic positions at Novartis.
He began his career as an officer in the US Marine Corps and in management consulting at LEK.