Porton Advanced and EVA Pharma Sign MOU to Expand CAR T-Cell Therapy Access in The Middle East and Africa
A new era of personalized gene therapy for Leukemia patients in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and beyond.
SUZHOU, China and CAIRO, June 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Porton Advanced Solutions, a global leading cell and gene therapy CDMO service provider, and EVA Pharma, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies driving healthcare innovation and access across the Middle East and Africa, have announced the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today, which will see the two organizations collaborating on establishing and strengthening CAR T-cell therapy development and manufacturing capabilities at EVA Pharma's facilities.
Under the MOU, the partnership will prioritize the development and large-scale manufacturing of high-quality lentiviral vectors, a critical component in CAR T-cell therapies for leukemia and other blood cancers. Porton Advanced will leverage its expertise in viral vector and CAR-T cell therapy process development and manufacturing to support EVA Pharma's efforts to deliver safe, effective, and scalable treatments. The collaboration brings together Porton Advanced' s cutting-edge expertise in viral vector and cell therapy manufacturing with EVA Pharma's growing footprint in high-tech biopharmaceuticals and its established regional infrastructure and market leadership across the Middle East and Africa. This will support technology transfer and local production capabilities for innovative cancer therapies while ensuring the highest quality standards.
"Patients battling cancer deserve more than hope; they deserve access to innovations once thought out of reach." said Riad Armanious, CEO of EVA Pharma. "Together EVA Pharma and Porton Advanced are combining our capabilities to localize innovation, at scale and with equity."
"We are excited to collaborate with EVA Pharma to make transformative cell therapies more accessible," said Andrew Chen, CFO of Porton Advanced. "This partnership marks a sustainable model for advanced therapy manufacturing in emerging markets. This collaboration aligns with our vision of supporting cutting-edge treatments globally accessible and further validates Porton Advanced' s unique value in facilitating global advanced therapy pipelines".
The agreement aligns with global efforts to expand access to advanced immunotherapies, particularly in markets with limited cell and gene therapy infrastructure. By establishing localized production hubs in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the partnership aims to reduce costs, shorten treatment timelines, and set new standards for oncology care in the MEA region.
About EVA Pharma
EVA Pharma is dedicated to improving access to affordable, high-quality medicines around the world, focusing on three core pillars: innovation, development and sustainable access. The company leverages cutting-edge technology at two research centers bringing first-of-its-kind capabilities to the Middle East and Africa including mRNA research and development from AI prediction to biological products.
With a 5,000-strong team of professionals, EVA Pharma produces more than one million healthcare products a day at four state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, which are internationally recognized for innovation, and have been approved by multiple regulatory agencies.
Guided by a relentless drive to ensure sustainable access to pressing yet unmet disease areas, the company's product portfolio focuses on twelve therapeutic areas: Anti-infectives, metabolic health, bone, neuroscience, oncology, respiratory, gynecology, urology and andrology, pediatrics, ophthalmology, gastrointestinal tract, family medicine to meet both local and international demand.
EVA Pharma is one of the fastest-growing healthcare companies in the Middle East and Africa, with an extensive pan-African presence, while operating in more than 70 countries worldwide.
For more information, please visit: www.evapharma.com
About Porton Advanced
Porton Advanced Solutions is a subsidiary of the leading CDMO, Porton Pharma Solutions. Porton Advanced has headquarters in Cranbury, New Jersey, and two GMP sites in Suzhou, China, providing end-to-end CDMO solutions for ATMPs. We offer services from cell banking, process, and analytical method development, cGMP production to fill & finish, covering different stages of drug development from early research, IITs, Investigational New Drug (IND) applications, clinical trials, New Drug Applications (NDA), to commercialization.
Porton advanced offers end-to-end services spanning drug discovery, preclinical research, process development, cGMP-compliant manufacturing and global regulatory support. It's proven process development capabilities, GMP-compliant facilities (meeting US, EU, and China standards), and extensive projects experience position it as a strategic partner for international biotech companies seeking clinical and commercial CDMOs.
Porton Advanced has developed specialized CRO and CDMO platforms focusing on plasmids, viral vectors (lentiviral vector, adenoviral vector, AAV,etc), cell therapy CMC services including CAR-T, TCR-T, CAR-NK, HSC, exosome, etc) and nucleic acid therapies. Our state-of-the-art, GMP-compliant facilities span an impressive 21,000 m2, equipped with 10 viral vector production lines, 12 GMP-compliant cell therapy production suites (including 2 suites for infectious donors), and a multitude of clean rooms. As of now, we have successfully supported our clients to secure 18 global IND approvals from NMPA, FDA, and Medsafe, with 6 ongoing Phase I/II ATMP projects. Additionally, Porton Advanced has supported the successful transition of several overseas clinical-stage pipelines into China.
Porton Advanced is committed to a customer-centric approach, offering excellent global, end-to-end CDMO services to our clients, enabling effective drugs to benefit the public sooner.
For more information about Porton Advanced, please visit: www.portonadvanced.com.
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