SIRION Biotech on course for expansion

The company triples its laboratory and office space at the Gräfelfing site near Munich

In 2006, the young start-up SIRION Biotech moved into the Biotechnology Innovation and Start-up Center (IZB) and has since developed into one of the most successful start-ups in the biotech industry, with additional locations in Paris and Boston. In December 2021, the company will move out of the IZB and triple the laboratory and office space at its nearby location in Gräfelfing near Munich.

SIRION Biotech was founded with the goal of developing a new generation of viral vector technologies for gene and cell therapy and vaccine development. SIRION produces novel therapeutic viral vectors and uses proprietary technology platforms based on lenti-, adeno- and adeno-associated viruses to accelerate its partners’ progress in drug development.

In February 2021, “IZB Biotech News” reported on the collaboration between Sanofi and SIRION Biotech. The goal of the collaboration is to develop improved tissue-selective adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors to realize effective gene therapy treatments for diseases of major human organs.

As a result, SIRION will also move into new laboratory and office space at the Heidelberg site to work closely with Sanofi and Prof. Dirk Grimm, a world-renowned and pioneering scientist in the field of AAV biology and application who conducts research at Heidelberg University Hospital.  SIRION Biotech will work with these partners to enhance their proprietary technology platforms to develop a new generation of AAV vectors.

SIRION Biotech is now the leading European developer and manufacturer of viral vectors for research and preclinical applications. To date SIRION has completed over 3000 projects of all sizes, working closely with over 300 independent customer groups from academia and industry. It also offers LentiBOOST®, a highly effective lentiviral transduction enhancer for therapeutic cell types like CAR-T cells and CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells. LentiBOOST® is currently included in more than 20 Phase III and I/II clinical trials.

SIRION is committed to enabling our partners to develop the most successful vectors for their applications. It guides its customers through the entire Cell & Gene Therapy value chain – from capsid evolution and clinical vector design to reduce vector dose and improve therapeutic success, to supporting them with its process and development experience and manufacture of high-quality clinically compliant viral vectors for late preclinical applications.

“SIRION Biotech has been able to develop into an extremely successful international company at the IZB. I am pleased that Sirion will keep its research focus in the immediate vicinity of the Martinsried campus despite its ongoing expansion in Europe and the USA – this speaks in favor of Bavaria as a location,” said Dr. Peter Hanns Zobel, Managing Director of IZB.