The Apollo platform consists of a CHO DG44-derived host cell line and an expression vector, and will be a complementary offering to Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies’ microbial-based platform, pAVEway, Mark Douglas, Head of Business Development told Biopharma-Reporter.com.
“The Apollo platform is specifically designed for the expression of mammalian cell culture biopharmaceuticals,” he said, and so for customers the choice of platform is “made dependent on the type of molecule the customer is developing.”
The platform also compromises of optimised media and feed components which allows it to be highly productive – delivering titers of up to 3g/L before subsequent optimisation, the company boasts – as well as speeding up the product lifecycle. Apollo, the firm said, can supply material within 10 weeks of receiving a gene sequence with a manufacturing-ready clonal cell line within 25 weeks.
Douglas told us the platform has been developed between Fujifilm’s facilities in Billingham, UK and North Carolina, US – both of which have seen recent investment in single-use bioreactors.
“However, some steps will only take place at our UK site,” he said, “as this is where the initial cell line development is carried out,” utilising high-throughput and predictive screen technologies including the firm’s ClonePix shaken fed-batch multi-well plates, and its ambr15 microbioreactor.
Douglas also told us there was a conscious decision to use elements well known and understood by the regulators in developing the platform. “
The host is derived from CHO DG44 which is well known and trusted in the biopharmaceutical industry,” he said, adding there is “maximum traceability and full characterisation of Fujifilm’s variant of it.”