Turgut Ilaclari and Selexis Team Up

Mammalian cell line generation company Selexis SA and Turgut Ilaclari A.S., a biosimilar developer based in Turkey, have entered into a service agreement that provides Turgut with access to Selexis SUREtechnology Platform and SURE CHO-M Cell Line for the development of quality biosimilar products for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, certain cancers and two rare diseases.

“Our scientists, inspired by the innovation of our technology, are driven to provide high performance, cost-effective solutions to companies, such as Turgut, for therapeutic protein production,” said Marco Bocci, vice president, licensing and business development, Selexis. “We are pleased to report excellent progress on this project, recently completing two of the five cell lines. Partnerships are fundamental to our success, and we look forward to continuing our long-term relationship with Turgut.”

According to the company, its proprietary SUREtechnology Platform facilitates the rapid, stable and cost-effective production of virtually any recombinant protein and provides seamless integration of the biologics development continuum, spanning discovery to commercialization.

The Selexis SURE CHO-M Cell Line is a proprietary high-performance mammalian cell line that is derived from CHO-K1 cells and used for the production of therapeutic recombinant proteins and monoclonal antibodies. The company said the growth and production properties of the SURE CHO-M Cell Line are well defined, and the feed strategy has been optimized, allowing for faster and more efficient scale-up to bioreactors. Therapeutics that are generated using Selexis SURE CHO-M cells are in both clinical trials and marketed products.

In addition to the service agreement tied to the development of five Turgut biosimilar products, Turgut and Selexis have signed two commercial license agreements in conjunction with the first two Turgut products using the SURE CHO-M Cell Lines. Selexis is entitled to certain milestone payments and royalties if the product candidates reach defined clinical development stages and significant commercial sales levels.

“Selexis’ industrial cell line technology is an important component of our biotechnology platform established for the development and production of high quality biosimilar monoclonal antibodies to improve human health in Turkey and globally,” said Serdar Alpan, biotechnology group leader, Turgut.