Purolite teams with Repligen for prefilled Protein A columns
The agreement will allow biomanufacturers to buy Repligen’s OPUS chromatography columns prefilled with Purolite’s Praesto Protein A capture resin and comes in response to feedback from customers.
Previously, Purolite sales director Chris Major said, “the customer would need to order the resin and take delivery, and then forward onto Repligen, or Repligen would buy direct. Either way this added unnecessary cost, complexity and a longer lead time, ultimately delaying our customers.”
He told Biopharma-Reporter the partnership brings customers a streamlined solution as now, as soon as the customer requests the column, the process build immediately begins.
“Resin stocks are held on site at Repligen’s facilities, and Repligen have increased column parts for more popular column dimensions for rapid, ‘just in time’ manufacturing with a very short and impressive leadtime - since we know speed it key.”
The deal is not exclusive as customers can still buy Purolite’s resins for use in alternative chromatography systems, but Major said Repligen’s OPUS columns are “the market leader in the pre-packed column space. This is in part why Purolite has chosen to endorse OPUS.”
Ligand supply
Repligen is a long-term supplier of Protein A ligands for Wales, UK-based agarose chromatography resin maker Purolite.
“All our launched products today use ligands from Repligen,” Major said. “They are the largest global producer of protein A ligands, which means our end users benefit from their expertise in ligand innovation and manufacturing.”
Repligen has also been a long-term ligand supplier for GE Healthcare, though for its latest resin offering GE has opted to manufacture it in-house at its site in Uppsala, Sweden and through a second undisclosed supplier.
Major said Purolite is unlikely to look to make its own ligands, and will continue working with Repligen.
“Repligen has protein A manufacturing capability both in Lund, Sweden and in Waltham, USA that supports a globally separated dual sourcing manufacturing capability. This commitment to security of supply really negates any need to consider manufacturing outside of this agreement.”
