Mirus launches viral vector transfection kits to address ‘two critical areas’

The US company announced the launch of its TransIT VirusGEN GMP product line, which provides transfection reagents and enhancers to support viral vector manufacturing for cell and gene therapy development and process activities through to good manufacturing practice (GMP) commercial scale.

According to the company, the TransIT VirusGEN GMP transfection reagent has been developed to enhance the delivery of packaging and transfer vector DNA to suspension and adherent HEK 293 cell to increase production of recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) and lentivirus (LV) vectors.

Mirus Bio stated that virus titers can be increased further with the enhancers included as part of the overall VirusGEN AAV and VirusGEN GMP LV transfection kits.

A spokesperson for the company told BioPharma-Reporter that the driver behind releasing the product had been the growing number of cell and gene therapies involving recombinant viral vectors. Further than this, Mirus Bio expects that once commercial gene therapies move beyond rare diseases then “the amount of virus required to address these patient populations will skyrocket.”

In terms of specifically how the transfection kits will aid manufactures, the spokesperson outlined ‘two critical areas’ facing these companies, which are increasing the cost-efficiency of producing viral vectors to meet demand, and the need to reduce safety and regulatory risk in upstream manufacturing processes.

The company stated that the transfection kits are able to address these two issues by providing ‘unrivalled performance,’ and by providing GMP compliance for viral vector manufacturing by offering GMP raw materials.

In terms of how the transfection kits achieve this increased performance, the spokesperson said that the product line combined polymer and lipid-based technologies into one product, thereby increasing production capabilities in 293 cells. As a result, the transfection kits can lead to a 2-10 fold increase in virus titers over current technologies.

The product line launch follows on from the news that Gamma Biosciences had taken a controlling investment​​ in Mirus Bio. As part of this announcement, it was announced that the investment would lead to the further development and commercialization TransIT VirusGEN.

At the time, Gamma Bio stated that the investment was made as demand for larger volumes of viral vectors had increased due to the growing number of gene therapies in the pipeline.