Egg adaptation is the biggest culprit in this year’s poor flu vaccine efficacy says Novavax, a firm developing a product based on recombinant protein nanoparticles.
Compugen has selected Selexis’ SUREtechnology cell expression platform to generate high-performance research cell banks (RCBs) and support its antibody pipeline.
A gene-inserting technology that effectively implants large molecules into cells could help modify T-cells from a patient’s immune system, says researcher.
Draper has designed a microfluidic transduction device (MTD) it claims will help CAR T-cell therapy developers lower costs, up efficiency – and potentially bring manufacturing to the patient’s bedside.
A newly approved patent will allow CEL-SCI to explore using cellular delivery to prevent and treat infectious diseases using its LEAPS technology, the firm says.
Xencor and Selexis will extend their strategic partnership with the signing of four commercial license agreements to advance XmAb bispecific antibody drug candidates.
“There is a new kid on the block to rival E. Coli, CHO and yeast,” says Dyadic International as it collaborates to widen the use of its C1 expression tech.
Lonza will combine its cell and gene therapy capabilities through four centres of excellence worldwide, following a number of investments in the space.
Lonza has inked a biologics deal with Denali to make neurodegenerative disease therapies, offering the Californian firm opportunity to have production “on their back doorstep.”
AbSci says its genetically engineered E. coli expression platform has produced yields exceeding 20 g/L for difficult to express products and threatens the dominance of mammalian systems.
Adaptimmune Therapeutics has manufactured the first SPEAR-T cells for a patient at its Navy Yard facility, which will be the primary site for its future manufacturing requirements.
Celgene will add chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T-cell receptor (TCR) technologies through the acquisition of its immune-oncology partner Juno Therapeutics.
Cellular Biomedicine Group Inc (CBMG) has selected GE Healthcare’s FlexFactory technology for its CAR-T therapy production facility in Shanghai, China.
Vector-based vaccine tech firm Vaccitech has secured £20m ($27.1m) in venture capital with investors Google Ventures, Sequoia China, Neptune Ventures and Oxford Sciences Innovation.
CAR T-cell understanding must come before the process design if such therapies are ever going to be accessible to a larger patient population, says Autolus.
Takeda has said it will review the manufacturing of Alofisel (darvadstrocel) if its €520m ($620m) bid for off-the-shelf stem cell developer TiGenix is successful.
Harpoon Therapeutics has selected CMC Biologics to develop and manufacture three molecules for cancer treatments at the CDMO’s facilities in California and Washington State, US.
Teva Pharmaceuticals Australia has selected Berkeley Lights’ biological workflow platform to develop therapeutic antibodies at its R&D site in New South Wales.
CAR T developers must be involved throughout the entire supply chain says Kite Pharma, which depends on accreditation and training programmes across its network of Yescarta administration clinics.
Thermo Fisher will up its list prices by an average of 3.3% across much of its early-stage bioproduction product range, reflecting changing market conditions.
Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developers are at risk of aggregation issues caused by the hydrophobic nature of next-generation linker-payloads, says ADC Bio.
By InVitria launches xeno-free service within $5.2bn media market
Xeno-free media will continue to increase its share of the estimated 30m litre mammalian cell culture market says InVitria, which has launched a new formulation service.
Heavy investment in quality control, quality assurance and dedicated equipment is likely to keep CAR T-cell manufacturing in-house, says Juno Therapeutics.
Nearly half the respondents of our second state of the global biomanufacturing survey believe we are too reliant on Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) expression systems.
Chiome Bioscience has selected ProBioGen to develop and manufacture its monoclonal antibody LIV-1205, which is designed to combat liver cancer and solid tumours.
By Cutting the cost of vaccine manufacture, Univercells
High-density single-use bioreactors, small facilities and continuous manufacturing will cut the cost of manufacturing polio vaccines down to $0.15 per dose, says Univercells.
Gilead says it is looking to make as many as 90 academic centres available to administer CAR-T Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) following its approval in the US.
The US approval recommendation for Spark Therapeutics’ blindness gene therapy voretigene neparvovec is also an endorsement of AAV delivery technologies according to the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine.
VirionHealth Ltd is poised to start Phase I trials of new biological antivirals - called defective interfering particles - after receiving £13m ($15m) from private equity group Abingworth.
Batavia Biosciences will expand a Dutch production facility and build a viral vector plant in the US to cater for demand for its bioprocessing services.
