The contract manufacturing organization (CMO) has installed a 1,000L HyClone at its mammalian antibody production facility in Södertälje, located 30km south of Stockholm, Sweden.
Spokeswoman Lara Jupp told BioPharma-Reporter.com that the CMO opted for the HyClone reactor – which is made by Thermo Fisher Scientific – based on past experience and compatability with existing systems.
“We chose HyClone with Finesse system because it fits with our current platform of cell-culture reactor capabilities in both non-GMP and GMP production at 250L scale as we already have Hyclone/Finesse systems in 50L/250L SUBs which fits with our platform in earlier cell-line and small scale process development using AMBR, shakeflasks, glass reactors and waves.
“It thus enables a fast and seamless process knowledge buildup and scale-up as well as staff flexibility and thus a faster timeline in development.”
Cobra said that investment in the new systems was prompted by growing demand from its drug industry customers, citing a new contract for a project with an unnamed client in North America as a major motivation for the expansion.
Jupp declined to go details about the project for reasons of client confidentiality, but did say that Cobra’s technology investment is suited to both clinical and commercial scale production.
“In general the 1000L scale fills the need to be able to support clinical development in a more flexible way,” she said, explaining that it enables fast delivery of materials for more demanding clinical stages as well as for "commercial production for biosimilars."