# Ascend Advanced Therapies

> Ascend Advanced Therapies is a contract development and manufacturing organization serving advanced therapy developers. Built through acquisitions of experienced manufacturing teams and technologies, it combines AAV process development, proprietary EpyQ production technology, analytics, GMP manufacturing and fill-finish, with broader viral capabilities through ABL.

- **Founded:** 2021
- **Headquarters:** Rockville, United States
- **Founders:** Tim Funnell (Founding CEO; founding investor at Monograph Capital), Monograph Capital (Founding investment firm)
- **Products:** EpyQ AAV Production System, Process development and GMP manufacturing, Analytics and GMP QC testing, Viral vector long-read NGS, Aseptic fill-finish and formulation
- **Notable:** Public launch in March 2023 with USD 132.5 million in cumulative funding., Acquisition of Beacon’s Alachua manufacturing team and facility in April 2024., ABL combination announced in November 2024.

## Products & services

- **EpyQ AAV Production System** — Split two-plasmid transfection platform with one custom and one off-the-shelf plasmid; external manufacturing licenses carry an annual fee without milestones or royalties.
- **Process development and GMP manufacturing** — Upstream and downstream development, characterization, scale-up and manufacturing; the current website advertises bioreactor scales from 2 L to 500 L.
- **Analytics and GMP QC testing** — More than 60 characterization and release assays advertised, including impurity, potency, identity and concentration methods. Munich QC GMP certification announced in June 2025.
- **Viral vector long-read NGS** — Oxford Nanopore-based vector genome and impurity profiling; analysis-only support also available.
- **Aseptic fill-finish and formulation** — Drug product formulation development and US fill-finish services supporting advanced therapy programs.
- **AAV manufacturing enhancers** — Two proprietary enhancers reported in November 2025 to increase yields by up to threefold in tested conditions; broader licensing was planned.

## Achievements

- Public launch in March 2023 with USD 132.5 million in cumulative funding.
- Acquisition of Beacon’s Alachua manufacturing team and facility in April 2024.
- ABL combination announced in November 2024.
- Munich GMP QC certification announced in June 2025.
- Reported successful defense of European EpyQ patent EP3722434 in October 2025.
- Reported up to threefold AAV yield improvements with two proprietary enhancers in November 2025.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — ABL and Ascend announced Suman Subramanian as Chief Business Officer on August 10.
- **2026-07** — Published an ESACT 2026 comparative study presentation evaluating three bioreactor platforms for rAAV9 production at 10 L.
- **2026-05** — Published ASGCT work on formulation changes to reduce cannula-associated AAV loss and on nanopore sequencing size-bias correction.
- **2026-01** — Announced appointments of Seiga Ohmine, Sharad Dubey and Patrick Lansky to senior leadership.

## Links

- Website: https://www.ascend-adv.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascend-advanced-therapies/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ascend-advanced-therapies
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-15