Selexis to triple cell line capacity on back of increased demand
The agreement with Boston, Massachusetts-based Pieris Pharmaceuticals follows similar deals since June with Laboratorios Liomont, Progenics Pharmaceuticals and ASLAN Pharmaceuticals for the commercial license of Selexis’ CHO-K1 cell line and access to its SUREtechnology expression platform.
The firm has capacity to service these deals, but according to CEO Igor Fisch the number of clients is anticipated to double over the next few years, and thus Selexis will begin a "major expansion" by the first quarter 2017.
“The company will be able to triple its capacity for generating stable high producing clonal cell lines,” he told Biopharma-Reporter, adding Selexis is also planning to launch two new product platforms to aid biomanufacturers within the next eight months.
“These platforms will impact our entire industry in terms of risk mitigation while manufacturing as well as to improve the timelines to generate high producing cell clone with difficult to express proteins.”
Fisch attributed much of Selexis’ success to its proprietary technology, the SUREtechnology platform used to insert genes into CHO cells and other mammalian cell lines.
“We believe the SUREtechnology platform is the most powerful for partners who want to generate high producing and stable research cell banks for recombinant proteins,” he said, adding Selexis also stands out as it offers a “unique solution for difficult-to-express and complex proteins.”
“Furthermore, we have ramped up our business development and related external awareness building efforts, and these activities are paying off,” he said.
“Our investments in the whole genome sequencing of our CHO-M Cell Line (CHO-K1) have become a huge interest to our partners. Selexis now has a novel method of barcoding and tracing Master/Research/Working cell banks with a reference point for any potential genetic changes.”
