Pionyr inks second deal with ProBioGen to push antibody towards clinical trials

ProBioGen will use its CHO.RiGHT expression platform to develop and manufacture a second antibody for Pionyr Immunotherapeutics.

According to the service and license agreement, ProBioGen will perform stable cell line development, process development and good manufacturing practice (GMP) manufacturing on an antibody from Pionyr’s pipeline.

The deal follows on from a similar agreement between the firms in 2017, to advance Pionyr’s first Myeloid Tuning candidate into cell line development and clinical trials.

The Myeloid Tuning approach is designed to enhance the immune system’s anti-tumour response, by modifying the cellular infiltration of the tumour microenvironment with high specificity.

“We consider Pionyr’s Myeloid Tuning approach to be ideally suited to target solid tumours and look forward to contributing to multiple programmes with our CHO.RiGHT development and manufacturing platform,” said VP of process and science and manufacturing at ProBioGen, René Brecht, in a statement.

According to ProBioGen’s chief business officer Gabriele Schneider, the CHO.RiGHT platform offers optimal productivity and product quality, as well as competitive timelines.

“Applying our own CHO.RiGHT expression vector technology and optimised signal sequences and genes, we select and assess clones under process conditions in our own chemically defined media platform,” Schneider told us.

“All final clones are confirmed in respect to cell-metabolic features and product quality, manufacturability, and stability, before Master Cell Bank (MCB) decision,” he added.

ProBioGen is also known for its artificial lymph node model (huALN), the GlymaxX technology, designed to boost the antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity of antibodies, and its designer cell lines for vaccine manufacturing. The firm has signed license deals with Chiome Bioscience, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis and Thermo Fisher Scientific.