Selexis, Cambrex Enter Development Pact

Selexis SA has entered into cooperative agreements with two Cambrex Corp. subsidiaries, Cambrex Bio Science Baltimore, Inc. and Cambrex Bio Science Walkersville, Inc. Under the agreement, Cambrex will have access to Selexis’ SURE engineered cell lines and expertise. Additionally, Selexis will utilize Cambrex’s expertise to produce data that will help maintain high productivity of the Selexis cell lines in Cambrex’s PowerCHO media.

Cambrex will use Selexis’ SURE engineered cell lines in Cambrex bioreactors to commercially produce recombinant therapeutic proteins. Concurrently, Cambrex will capture data that will help identify specific bioreactor processes and media that may maintain high productivity of the Selexis SURE cell lines. Selexis’ SURE Technology Platform includes MARtech, a unique technology that improves the speed, yield and stability of production cell lines used for therapeutic protein manufacturing. Additionally, MARtech has been found to significantly increase recombinant protein expression in mammalian cells in suspension and in serum-free as much as twentyfold.

“This is a ‘win-win’ agreement that provides significant benefits to both Selexis and Cambrex,” said Dr. Igor Fisch, chief executive officer, Selexis SA. “Our SURE Cell Line Development will help Cambrex grow their protein and antibody production business, and the data that Cambrex scientists generate will be a tremendous help to us in validating the high productivity rates of the SURE cell lines on a commercial scale.”

“We have been actively searching for technologies to enhance our protein and antibody production business,” said Peter van Hoorn, executive vice president, business development, Cambrex Biopharma. “After thoroughly investigating options, we are confident that cell lines engineered with Selexis’ SURE technology, in combination with our PowerCHO media, can offer customers outstanding results. By using Selexis’ SURE cell line platform, we have removed the need to license several expression and cell line technologies, which means our customers are less encumbered by royalty payments.”