Multiply Labs used cobots to deliver breakthrough results in the manufacturing of cell therapies. Source: Universal Robots
Precision medicine, in which complex treatments for cancer and other conditions are personalized, is typically costly, limiting patient access to care. Multiply Labs Inc. has developed a “robotic biomanufacturing cluster” that it said can reduce the cost of life-saving cell therapies by 74%.
“Historically, cell and gene therapy manufacturing has been manual, almost artisanal,” said Fred Parietti, CEO of Multiply Labs. “Expert scientists perform hundreds of tasks by hand, from pipetting to shaking cells.”
San Francisco-based Multiply Labs has developed cloud-controlled automated systems for the production of individualized drugs at scale. Its team includes mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, computer scientists, software engineers, and pharmaceutical scientists.
The company said its customers include some of largest global organizations in the advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing space.
Customized therapies need precise production
Personalized cell therapies are often used to treat blood cancers such as lymphoma and leukemia. Unlike mass-produced drugs, they require a customized dose from each patient’s own cells, making large-batch production impossible. Such therapies are currently priced between $300,000 and $2 million per dose.
In addition, a single microbial contamination can render the entire product unusable, leading to costly manufacturing failures.
Multiply Labs chose Universal Robots A/S (UR) for its modular biomanufacturing cluster after closely evaluating several different collaborative robot arms.
“UR was chosen due to their crucial six-axis capabilities, unrivaled force mode for delicate handling, seamless software integration, robust community support, and cleanroom compatibility,” said Nadia Kreciglowa, head of robotics at Multiply Labs.
Editor’s note: RoboBusiness 2025, which will be on Oct. 15 and 16 in Santa Clara, Calif., will include tracks on physical AI, enabling technologies, and design and development best practices. It will be co-located with medical device event DeviceTalks West, and registration is now open.
UR cobots can replicate intricate processes
As published in peer-reviewed studies with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Multiply Labs used multiple UR cobots working in parallel, stacked floor to ceiling with collision avoidance, to handle the entire cell therapy manufacturing process.
The new partnership, Universal Robots’ first in the cell and gene therapy sector, illustrates the great potential of collaborative robots in healthcare, according to Jean-Pierre Hathout, president of Odense, Denmark-based UR, a Teradyne company.
“By empowering Multiply Labs to replicate intricate manual processes with high precision and scale, our cobots are redefining efficiency in pharmaceutical manufacturing,” he stated. “More importantly, it’s driving significant cost reductions while broadening access to life-saving treatments. At its core, this partnership is a testament to how robotics can elevate human capability and serve critical needs in medicine.”
Multiply Labs uses imitation learning for process fidelity
Multiply Labs cited its imitation learning technology as enabling robots learn from expert human demonstrations rather than dictating new processes.
“We ask the pharmaceutical companies that we work with to videotape their scientists performing the tasks,” explained Parietti. “We then feed this data to the robots, and the robots learn to effectively replicate what scientists were doing in the lab, just more efficiently, more repeatably, 24/7, and in parallel.”
He added that this approach allows the UR cobots to “self-learn hundreds of new tasks” with exponentially lower engineering costs.
Multiply Labs’ system faithfully replicates manual processes with enhanced efficiency, repeatability, and sanitary conditions, according to the partners. This process fidelity is also crucial for regulatory compliance, potentially saving decades and billions of dollars in re-approval costs by replicating existing, already approved processes, said Dr. Jonathan Esensten, director of the Advanced Biotherapy Center at Sheba Medical Center.
“Instead of starting from square zero in terms of drug approval, companies can now document that this is the exact same manufacturing process. It just happens to be done by a robot.” he noted. Dr. Esensten, a former member of the UCSF faculty, worked with Multiply Labs to develop the system.
Multiply Labs uses imitation learning to train robots how to do new tasks. Source: Universal Robots
Multiply Labs reduces costs, space utilization, contamination
“When we compared a traditional manual manufacturing process for these cell therapies to a robotic process doing the exact same process, we found a cost reduction of approximately 74%,” said Esensten. “Growing T cells is something that we have been doing for a long time, but to have the robotic system do it without any human hands touching the cells throughout the process, that is a quantum leap in terms of being able to manufacture these medicines at a lower cost and in a smaller space.”
In addition to cost savings, the robotic system can drastically improve space utilization, Parietti said. It can free up enough space to store up to 100x more patient doses per square foot of cleanroom compared with a typical manual process. Quality and sterility are also significantly enhanced, he said.
“Robots don’t breathe, and they don’t touch stuff they’re not supposed to touch,” observed the Multiply Labs CEO.
“While human handling led to contamination in one case, we did not see any contamination in the robotic process,” said Dr. Esensten in reference to the UCSF study.
The Multiply Labs robotic cluster is already deployed at global pharmaceutical companies with results now also documented in collaboration with scientists at Stanford University.
“This will really change the way we think about the manufacturing of these bespoke, custom cell and gene therapies for patients,” said Parietti. “We will ultimately improve patient access globally by lowering manufacturing costs, enabling distributed production worldwide of these life-saving therapies.”
