Latest News

Navigating the fast-paced cell and gene therapy landscape? Stay ahead of the curve with our curated news on viral vectors in cell & gene therapy July 2024 edition. Read here: Virica's Industry Insights- July Edition.  

Invest Ottawa announces Virica’s graduation from its flagship program following significant growth, increased revenue, team expansion, creating numerous jobs, and securing critical funding. As Virica transitions to the IO ScaleUp program, its aim is to expand services, enter new markets, and continue helping life-saving cell and gene therapies scale. Read Full Article: LINK HERE

  On June 24, 2024, Yasir Naqvi, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre, on behalf of the Honourable Filomena Tassi, Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), announced a $1.5 million repayable investment to support the expansion of Virica's new facility at the Carleton University.  The new facility offers a significant expansion of bioprocess services and improved infrastructure, multiplying our capacity to provide high-throughput virology services for clients looking to optimize the production of cell and gene therapies. Key highlights: Expanded high throughput virology services. State-of-the-art [...]

Virica has been selected as a project lead for one of NIIMBL | The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals planned projects, which aim to address key opportunities for innovation in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. NIIMBL is a public-private partnership whose mission is to accelerate biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Virica, with support from NIIMBL members AstraZeneca and Sartorius Stedim Biotech, aims to increase lentiviral vector production outputs, cut costs, and improve manufacturing efficiency for CAR-T using small-molecule enhancers. Read NIIMBL’s full press release

Navigating the fast-paced cell and gene therapy landscape? Stay ahead of the curve with our curated news on viral vectors in cell & gene therapy April 2024 edition. Read here: Virica's Industry Insights- April Edition.  

Navigating the fast-paced cell and gene therapy landscape? Stay ahead of the curve with our curated news on viral vectors in cell & gene therapy January edition. Read here: Virica's Industry Insights- January Edition  

Our own Ella Korets-Smith, Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder of Virica Biotech, has been featured in the Ottawa Business Journal for her impactful role in advancing breakthrough biotechnology to “democratize gene therapy.” Virica’s vision is to make gene therapies accessible and affordable. Ella shares her entrepreneurial journey building Virica from an idea to a thriving business, expressing enthusiasm for Virica’s growing momentum. Virica’s Viral Sensitizer (VSETM) Technology “makes cells more friendly to viruses,” unlocking improved yield and productivity to achieve the scale these life-saving therapies need. With over 50 clients starting to use the products and scale their platforms, the [...]

Virica Biotech Inc. (“Virica”), a leading developer of cell enhancers for scaling of viral vectors and cell and gene therapies, announces a significant expansion of bioprocessing services through a strategic partnership with Carleton University in a PRESS RELEASE. "This multi-year, multi-million-dollar research and infrastructure partnership will help drive innovation and talent development in the Ottawa region for the creation and manufacturing of advanced therapies," said Rafik Goubran, Ph.D., Vice-President (Research and International) and Chancellor’s Professor, Carleton University. Slated to open this spring, Virica’s new facility at the university multiplies the company’s capacity to provide high throughput virology services for customers [...]

Cell & gene therapy (C&GT) is complex, expensive and lacks standardization. How do you effectively evaluate and make informed decisions to identify a winning viral vector production strategy to improve the accessibility & affordability of C&GT? We are thrilled to announce our Fast Facts video with Cell & Gene Insights, where our expert Andrea Vervoort, Technical Lead, breaks down key cost drivers of AAV manufacturing and the commercial impacts of incorporating Virica’s Viral Sanitizers (VSETM) using Biopharm’s BioSolve Bioprocess modelling. Click here to view our latest bioprocess modelling data in a Fast Facts video on Cell & Gene Insights!

Virica Biotech Inc. (“Virica”), a leading developer of cell enhancers for scaling of viral vectors, as well as cell and gene therapies, announced today the expansion of their sales team along with a full presentation calendar in a PRESS RELEASE.  Azra Benson, a veteran stem cell scientist with extensive commercial experience in the cell and gene therapy space, joins Virica as Head of Global Sales. It's exciting to have Azra join us at this pivotal time as we look forward to a busy 2024, working with clients to scale-up their life-changing cell and gene therapies. “An exciting first quarter lies [...]