Cell lines

Dispatches from BIO 2014

Kalon building $91m vaccine manufacturing facility in Texas for GSK partnership

24-Jun-2014 By Zachary Brennan

Texas-based Kalon Biotherapeutics is in the process of building two new biomanufacturing facilities, including a $91m facility to produce flu vaccines for GlaxoSmithKline.

Roche: ‘If suppliers don’t open up their books, then we are done’

18-Jun-2014 By Fiona Barry

Drug raw materials suppliers have not recognised their potential value to biopharmaceutical customers according to Roche which has called for a transformation in the vendor relationship.

Which came first the spaniel or the egg? Novartis' flu vaccine plant OKed

18-Jun-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

A long dead cocker spaniel will play a key role in helping people avoid the flu this winter after a landmark approval from the US FDA for Novartis’ cell culture based vaccine plant.

Demand for pre-prepared media drives Cherwell expansion

13-Jun-2014 By Dan Stanton

Increased regulatory expectation in the environmental monitoring of microbiological media has driven demand for prepared solutions, says Cherwell Laboratories as it completes a facility expansion.

Protein Sciences lauds benefits of Pfizer refit in commercial scale-up

13-Jun-2014 By Dan Stanton

Small biotechs should consider buying mothballed plants when scaling-up according to Protein Sciences, which says an ex-Pfizer facility was key to accelerating production of its vaccine Flublok.

'Tech platform spurred Lucentis biosimilar,' says Pfenex in $75m IPO

10-Jun-2014 By Dan Stanton

Pfenex has filed for an initial public offering to raise $75m to develop biosimilars using its protein producing Expression Technology platform.

Antitope to make manufacturing cell line for Baylor Institute’s cancer vaccine

10-Jun-2014 By Zachary Brennan

Antitope will develop a manufacturing cell line for the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research’s (BIIR) novel dendritic-cell-targeting vaccine for the treatment of head and neck and cervical cancer.

PharmaCell seeks more biomanufacturing contracts for new plant

06-Jun-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

European Provenge contractor PharmaCell BV is looking for new business after completing the acquisition of TiGenix’s biomanufacturing facility in the Netherlands.

Janssen in $365m licensing deal to develop prostate cancer drugs

04-Jun-2014 By Dan Stanton

Janssen has licensed the LADD immunotherapy platform and GVAX cell-line technology from Aduro BioTech in order to develop combination therapies for a number of prostate cancer candidates.

UCL spin-out aims to smuggle antibodies across the blood-brain barrier

27-May-2014 By Anthony King

A collaboration involving academia and industry is to develop new ways of delivering antibodies to the brain using molecular envelop technology developed by Nanomerics, a UCL spin-out company.

Ambrx signs bispecific antibody tech deal with Zhejiang Hisun

27-May-2014 By Anthony King

Ambrx says it will use its antibody platform in its collaboration with Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Company to develop and commercialise bispecifics for the treatment of cancer.

Pfizer nabs Roslin Cells in cell therapy manufacturing deal

23-May-2014 By Zachary Brennan

Roslin Cells has signed a contract with Neusentis, a research unit of Pfizer based in Cambridge, UK, to support the manufacture of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells to be used in a cell therapy clinical trial.

Horizon says cell service purchase will drive upstream and downstream

21-May-2014 By Fiona BARRY

Horizon, which supplies genomics research services, has bought cell-screening business CombinatoRx from Zalicus for £4.74m ($8m) and plans more acquisitions.

Cytovance to scale up mAb for Selexys’s Phase I trial

16-May-2014 By Fiona BARRY

Cytovance will use both single-use and stainless steel in its monoclonal antibody (mAb) manufacturing deal with Selexys Pharmaceuticals.

CMC to manufacture cancer mAb for MacroGenics

14-May-2014 By Fiona BARRY

CMC Biologics, a contract manufacturing organization (CMO), has been picked by biopharmaceutical company MacroGenics to make its oncology candidate as "an extension of their own technical team."

Novartis talks stem-cells but no word on Gamida rumours

13-May-2014 By Dan Stanton

Novartis says stem cell-based therapies will form an important part of its pipeline after reports in the Israeli media the firm pulled out of a deal to buy Gamida Cell.

UCB aims to halve antibody discovery time with robot

09-May-2014 By Fiona BARRY

UCB has launched a robot it says can halve antibody discovery time.

Gallus enters cell line optimization, manufacturing agreement with Omni Bio

06-May-2014

CMO Gallus BioPharmaceuticals and Omni Bio Pharmaceutical jointly announced finalization of a multi-stage manufacturing services agreement.

GE to in-license Promosome mammalian cell lines

30-Apr-2014 By Zachary Brennan

GE Healthcare Life Sciences has signed a licensing agreement for Promosome’s suite of mammalian cell line development technologies, which aim to increase protein expression in mammalian cell culture.

Lonza: growth in mammalian services as ADC plant opening nears

29-Apr-2014 By Dan Stanton

Increased demand for mammalian technologies will boost Lonza further when a new Swiss facility comes online offering “unique” complete development and manufacturing ADC services, the firm says.

SAFC Q1: ‘weak’ manufacturing, but investments to come

25-Apr-2014

SAFC (Sigma-Aldrich Corporation) says it will invest across its life science businesses following a first quarter that saw “weak” contract manufacturing but flourishing viral and cell media sectors.

Fresenius Kabi launches automated cell-washing technology

25-Apr-2014 By Dan Stanton

A ‘spinning membrane’ technology could provide an automated solution to the manual problem of cell washing in both upstream and downstream processes says Fresenius Kabi.

US FDA offers guidance on when two mAbs should be considered the same

23-Apr-2014 By Zachary Brennan

As the race to develop mAbs (monocolonal antibodies) heats up and companies vie for the elusive seven years exclusivity that comes with an orphan drug designation, the US FDA is now offering guidance on when two mAbs should be viewed as the same.

Sanofi sells therapy cells: Aastrom buys products and plants

22-Apr-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

Aastrom Biosciences will pay Sanofi $6.5m (EUR4.7m) for its cell therapy business in a deal that gives the cash strapped regenerative medicines developer three commercial products.

Catalent to provide cell lines for at least three Hisun biosimilars in China

16-Apr-2014 By Zachary Brennan

Catalent will provide Hisun Pharmaceuticals with cell lines to help it develop infliximab, adalimumab and alemtuzumab biosimilars for the Chinese market.

Race to develop anti-PCSK9 will boost Repligen's media sales, says analyst

15-Apr-2014 By Dan Stanton

Development of new anti-choloesterol drugs containing proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibiting monoclonal antibodies could double Repligen Bioprocessing’s earning power, according to a Jefferies analyst.

Stem cell developer ReNeuron relocates to take on more manufacture

15-Apr-2014 By Fiona BARRY

Stem cell company ReNeuron will move its operations and headquarters to Cardiff, UK after leasing an R&D and manufacturing facility from the Welsh government.

Takeda: cell cultures beat eggs for vaccine manufacture

11-Apr-2014 By Fiona BARRY

Cell cultures outshine traditional chicken eggs for vaccine manufacture, especially during a pandemic, Takeda has told BioPharma-Reporter.com.

NW Bio raises $32m to expand capacity for personalised brain cancer treatment

11-Apr-2014 By Zachary Brennan

Northwest Biotherapeutics, which is developing personalized immune therapies for brain cancer patients, has raised $32m to fund expansion of its manufacturing operations in Europe.

US national stem cell research hub to reassess role after director quits

11-Apr-2014 By Zachary Brennan

Despite the director’s resignation, the US NIH Intramural Center for Regenerative Medicine (CRM) has not closed and will hold a workshop to guide the direction of the center’s future, the NIH told us.

Team culturing cancer APIs says tech can make other plant derived drugs

08-Apr-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

Enzyme experts trying to make the anticancer APIs vincristine and vinblastine with engineered cell lines say the technology could be used to produce a wide range of plant-derived drug actives including alkaloids like morphine.

Kyowa Hakko Kirin completes $60m mammalian plant with 12,000L bioreactor

08-Apr-2014 By Dan Stanton

Kyowa Hakko Kirin has completed construction of a ¥6bn ($60m) biomanufacturing plant in Japan boasting a 12,000L stainless steel mammalian bioreactor.

Austrianova picks A*STAR microfluidics platform for cell dispensing

04-Apr-2014

Cell transportation technology firm Austrianova has licensed a low-cost, disposable microfluidics platform from SIMTech to improve how it dispenses cells used in biomanufacturing and therapeutic applications.

Baxter gains access to haemophilia gene therapy platform in $70m Chatham buy

02-Apr-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

Baxter has announced plans to buy gene therapy developer Chatham Therapeutics for $70m in a deal focused on the latter’s pipeline of haemophilia candidates and gene therapy delivery platform.

UK scientists announce breakthrough in stem cell manufacturing

02-Apr-2014 By Zachary Brennan

Scientists at the University of Nottingham have created a new combination of hydrogels that allows dense tissue structures to be produced from human pluripotent stem cells (HPSC) in a single step process never achieved before.

Hey rat fans, BioReliance has a Big Blue genotoxicity assay for you

26-Mar-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

BioReliance has updated its big blue assay for the second time in six months by creating a version of the drug genotoxicity test that can be used in rats.

Cevec's cell line bypasses problems that have held back RSV vaccine

25-Mar-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

An expression system developed by Cevec Pharmaceuticals has achieved 'very high' titres and bypassed problems that beset other platforms, moving the possibility of a commercial respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) one step closer.

Janssen and Novozymes: toxic drugs could change from daily to monthly

21-Mar-2014 By Fiona BARRY

Janssen has asked Novozymes Biopharma to help it reduce drug dosage “from daily to every two weeks or monthly” using its half-life extension technology.

UK cell therapy site to help firms avoid failures in “valley of death”

21-Mar-2014 By Gareth Macdonald

Government-backing for a large-scale cell therapy centre is justified because it will help developers navigate the “valley of death” in which many early-phase projects fail says the team planning the new manufacturing hub.