Formally launched on April 1st, 2025, the private-public partnership EASYGEN answers Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) call 7.2 - “User-centric technologies and optimized hospital workflows for a sustainable healthcare workforce”. 17 partners from 8 countries, granted € 8 million by the Innovative Health Initiative, aim to bring a centralized and multi-week production process of CAR-T cells to the point of care and closer to patients, replacing it with an automated 24-hour process. This will slash costs and give more patients timely access to this life-saving therapy.
The program is led by Fresenius Group and academically co-coordinated by the Fraunhofer IZI, whose long-standing expertise in cell-therapy production underpins the initiative. The consortium convened its kick-off this week, May 22nd, at the Fresenius headquarters in Bad Homburg with a highly motivated and energetic cross-functional team of clinicians, scientists, engineers, healthcare service experts, biotech innovators, and regulatory experts. EASYGEN aims to tackle tomorrow’s challenges by automating manual CAR-T steps and decentralizing production, eliminating capacity and logistics bottlenecks that currently delay treatments. Its modular point-of-care design intends to seamlessly slot into existing hospital workflows, reducing staff burden and supporting a sustainable clinical workforce. By cutting vein-to-vein time drastically and halving costs, EASYGEN's mission starts to pave the way for scalable, equitable access to life-saving cell therapies. Emily Whitehead's breakthrough CAR-T therapy ignited an industry-wide wave of hope, and all EASYGEN partners are deeply inspired and driven to join forces to make these advanced treatments accessible to every patient. Follow our journey—there is more to come.
The picture shows the consortium at the Kick-Off: In the front row, from left to right: Dr. Sonja Steppan (Easygen Principal Investigator, Fresenius SE), Prof. Dr. Michael Hudecek (Fraunhofer IZI), Theresa Kagerbauer (TQ Therapeutics), Dr. Agnes Vosen (HZDR), Christopher Wegener (Fresenius Kabi), Vaclovas Radvilas (EBMT), Dr. Julia Schüler (Charles River), Dr. Julia Busch-Casler (HZDR), Nicole Spanier-Baro (Fraunhofer IESE), Vivienne Williams (Cellix Limited), Prof. Dr. Bertram Glaß (Helios), Prof. Dr. Ulrike Köhl (Fraunhofer IZI), Rebecca Scheiwe (Fresenius SE).
In the back row, from left to right: Prof. Dr. Ralf Kuhlen (Fresenius SE), Prof. Dr. Jens O. Brunner (DTU), Dominik Narres (Fresenius SE), Thomas Brzoska (Pro-Liance Global Solutions), Dr. David Krones (Fraunhofer IZI), Dr. Sabine Bertsch (Pro-Liance Global Solutions), Dr. Ralf Hoffmann (Philips), Christin Zündorf (TQ Therapeutics), Dr. Anna Dünkel (Fraunhofer IZI).
Fresenius Group (Coordinator) Germany
Fresenius Kabi Germany
Fenwal, Inc., a Fresenius Kabi Company USA
Helios Kliniken GmbH Berlin-Buch Germany
Quirónsalud Spain
Philips Electronics Netherlands
TQ Therapeutics Germany
PRO-LIANCE GLOBAL SOLUTIONS GmbH Germany
Cellix Ltd. Ireland
Charles River Laboratories DRS Germany
PNO Innovation Germany (fka ARTTIC)
Fraunhofer IZI Germany
Fraunhofer IESE Germany
Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) Germany
Bar-Ilan University Israel
DTU - Technical University of Denmark
University of Navarra Spain
The EBMT Spain
