Akadeum Life Sciences Announces Establishment of the Akadeum CDMO Alliance Program

Cell therapy manufacturers Charles River and ElevateBio are named as inaugural members

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Akadeum Life Sciences, the leader in buoyant cell separation, announces the establishment of the Akadeum CDMO Alliance™ and the first two members in the consortium. The exclusive Akadeum CDMO Alliance builds on the strong relationships Akadeum has built with leading CDMOs in the cell therapy space and seeks to be a bastion for innovation in reducing costs, time, and access to cell therapies while delivering best-in-class performance.

Inaugural Members of the Akadeum CDMO Alliance: ElevateBio^® and Charles River. Akadeum has collaborated with both CDMOs, establishing strong data sets demonstrating reduced impurities and high potency of T cells isolated with microbubbles via negative selection.

ElevateBio is a technology-driven company powering the cell and gene therapy industry forward by combining process development and GMP manufacturing expertise with gene editing technologies to help partners realize the potential of their therapies from concept to commercialization. ElevateBio's comprehensive process development capabilities include the evaluation of emerging technologies, such as Akadeum's Buoyancy-Activated Cell Sorting (BACS™), focused on building GMP ready platforms. Highlighting this commitment, ElevateBio recently presented compelling data at ISCT 2025, demonstrating that Akadeum's microbubble technology is a viable alternative to traditional separation methods and offers a clear path towards improving the manufacturability and scalability of cell therapies.

"We're constantly evaluating new technologies that can help our partners effectively scale, reduce costs, and accelerate timelines," said Michael Paglia, Chief Technology Officer, ElevateBio. "Advancements like those from Akadeum represent the kind of solutions we look for to overcome challenges in cell therapy manufacturing and move the field forward. Our goal is to give partners every advantage as we work together to bring these potentially transformative therapies to patients."

Charles River's Cell Therapy Flex Platform originated as an off-the-shelf solution for Cell Therapy Process Development, providing ready-to-use platforms and protocols validated for autologous CAR-T and TCR-T cell therapies to minimize risk, lower costs, and accelerate development timelines. Automated platforms with closed systems include protocols from cell selection and expansion to electroporation and viral vector methods, wash/concentration, and fill and finish. Recently, Charles River announced the incorporation of Akadeum products into their Flex Platform for cell therapy manufacturing.

"Together with Akadeum, our Flex Platform is working to provide an innovative manufacturing solution that is scalable and ensures efficiency and quicker therapeutic delivery to patients," said Ahmad Hussin, Charles River Vice President, CDMO, Charles River. "We are excited to join Akadeum's CDMO Alliance, expanding the range of capabilities we're able to offer our clients."

Benefits to Akadeum CDMO Alliance Members
Bubble Certified™ Members receive insights into Akadeum's pipeline and are among the first to try new kits with Akadeum's R&D team. This premium access provides a competitive edge and direct engagement with R&D for customization and implementation. Akadeum CDMO Alliance members receive customer proposal tech support and customized training via dedicated technical and regulatory support team members with market-leading response times. To protect the value and provide strategic advantage to members, the Alliance will be limited - up to five CDMOs will be invited to join and it is anticipated the expansion will be complete in early 2026.

Akadeum's CDMO Alliance United in Faster, Higher Quality Therapeutic Manufacturing
Akadeum's Human T Cell Leukopak Isolation Kit-GMP presents a significant advancement in cell separation with its patented microbubble technology. Leveraging buoyancy, microbubbles effectively float unwanted cells to the surface, a negative selection approach that provides truly untouched cells leading to enhanced cell viability, reduced expansion times and increased potency. Microbubble technology is critical to CDMOs seeking shorter manufacturing times with lower costs while maintaining performance.

With the use of microbubbles:

• Workflow improvements contribute to an overall cost savings of up to 40%
• No investment in new equipment or extra laboratory space: CapEx & OpEx savings up to 37%.
• Simple cell separation process completed in under an hour enables 3x manufacturing starts on 66% fewer production lines.
• Minimal handling of patient cells results in a reduction of run failure rate.
• The cell separation process can be performed directly in the apheresis bag, allowing full use of patient material at once and processing limiting samples.

By establishing the Akadeum CDMO Alliance, Akadeum provides greater avenues to simplify the transfer from process development to commercialization with microbubbles and trusted, established CDMOs. Microbubbles readily scale in volume and provide consistent performance for hundreds of millions to tens of billions of cells, providing consistency, reliability through the full transfer process and simplifying reagent validation processes. "Akadeum has continually set the bar for cell separation improvements to drive cell therapy forward. The launch of the Akadeum CDMO Alliance is another step in uniting technologies and capabilities," said Akadeum CEO Brandon McNaughton. "We are excited to work with forward-thinking CDMOs driven to increase access and reduce vein-to-vein time."

About Akadeum Life Sciences
Akadeum Life Sciences is dedicated to advancing cell separation technology through its unique buoyant microbubble platform. This platform enables researchers and manufacturers to achieve higher yields, better purity, and improved process simplicity across a range of life science applications. Our mission is to create separation technologies to advance human health. We envision a world where innovative separations empower researchers and clinicians to unlock breakthroughs in diagnostics, therapeutics, and basic research. For more information, visit www.akadeum.com.

Akadeum Life Sciences Contact:
Brandon McNaughton, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
[email protected]

SOURCE Akadeum Life Sciences Inc