Miltenyi Biotec and THSTI Collaborate to Strengthen R&D

Miltenyi Biotec, a global leader in biomedical solutions, announced the signing of a Letter of Intent with the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology in New Delhi. With this partnership, both organizations aim to address the growing need for innovative treatments in the fight against cancer by developing innovative cell and gene therapies. The announcement was made during THSTI's 15th Foundation Day Celebrations.

The purpose of this collaboration is to focus on leveraging the strengths of both organizations to enhance research and development in cell and gene therapy (CGT) focusing on cancer and sickle cell disease. This collaboration would help in capacity building, technology transfer, training programs, and joint research initiatives which would then be translated into medical therapies.

Cell and gene therapy offers personalized and targeted approaches where a patient’s immune cells are used to fight cancer more effectively. While being less of a burden on other cell types in the patient‘s body compared to standard of care chemotherapy, cell and gene therapies so far need to further improve in scalability and affordability. Therefore, Miltenyi Biotec aims to offer cutting-edge and affordable solutions by advancing and accelerating the development of therapies closer to the patient site to fight against cancer, particularly leukemia and lymphoma.

Cancer is the second-most leading cause of death in India, only after cardiovascular diseases. A report by the National Library of Medicine highlighted that children aged between 0-14 years are most susceptible to lymphoid leukemia. It also highlighted that the incidence of cancer cases in India is estimated to increase by 12.8 percent in 2025, as compared to 2020[i].

The letter of intent was signed by Sivakumar Natarajan - Managing Director (Interim), Miltenyi Biotec, India, Dr Prudwidhar S - Country Medical Affairs Director at Miltenyi Biotec and Prof. Ganesan Karthikeyan, Executive Director, BRIC-Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (BRIC-THSTI) in the presence of Dr. Jitendra Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State (IC) Ministry of Science & Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences; Minister of State for PMO, MoPPP, DAE and DoS, Government of India and Dr Rajesh S Gokhale, Director General, BRIC & Secretary, Department of Biotechnology.

“Each year, more than 10,000 patients are treated with cell products using Miltenyi Biotec’s technologies[ii]. Through our partnership with THSTI, we aim to help bring new therapies to patients with high unmet medical needs in disease areas where traditional treatments have fallen short. Cell and gene therapy has the potential to offer transformative clinical outcomes and we are confident that our partnership with THSTI would improve accessibility, catalyse stronger innovation, adoption and enable us to provide an array of curative treatment solutions across the disease spectrum,” emphasized Sivakumar Natarajan.

Prof G Karthikeyan, Executive Director, BRIC-Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (BRIC-THSTI)  said, “The partnership with Miltenyi Biotec represents one more step in THSTI’s translational efforts. With our cutting-edge science and expertise in clinical trials, we hope to make tailored, stat-of-the-art cancer treatments affordable & accessible to our population.”

Dr. Amit Awasthi, Senior Professor, who is leading the Cell Therapy initiative at THSTI said “Our collaboration with Miltenyi Biotec is a significant milestone to advance cancer treatment through cutting edge research THSTI is doing in cell therapy research domain. By combining our research strengths with Miltenyi Biotec‘s expertise, we can develop groundbreaking therapies that can transform cancer care in India and beyond by committing ourselves to make these treatments accessible and affordable for all patients.”

Miltenyi Biotec was launched in India in February 2024, at the back of BioAsia Summit, held in Hyderabad.