Selexis SA Enters Cooperative Agreement with Cambrex Corporation to Use Selexis’ SURE Technology Platform for Mammalian Cell Line Development
Geneva, Switzerland – May 23, 2006 - Selexis SA, a Swiss-based biotechnology company specializing in high yield and stable cell line development for therapeutic proteins, announced today that it has entered into cooperative agreements with two Cambrex Corporation (“Cambrex”) subsidiaries, Cambrex Bio Science Baltimore, Inc. and Cambrex Bio Science Walkersville, Inc.. Under the agreement, Cambrex will have access to Selexis’ SURE engineered cell lines and expertise. Additionally, Selexis will utilize Cambrex’s expertise to produce data that will help maintain high productivity of the Selexis cell lines in Cambrex’s PowerCHO™ media.
Specifically, Cambrex will use Selexis’ SURE engineered cell lines in Cambrex bioreactors to commercially produce recombinant therapeutic proteins. Concurrently, Cambrex will capture data that will help identify specific bioreactor processes and media that may maintain high productivity of the Selexis SURE cell lines.
“This is a ‘win-win’ agreement that provides significant benefits to both Selexis and Cambrex,” said Dr. Igor Fisch, CEO, Selexis SA. “Our SURE Cell Line Development℠ will help Cambrex grow their protein and antibody production business, and the data that Cambrex scientists generate will be a tremendous help to us in validating the high productivity rates of the SURE cell lines on a commercial scale.”
Selexis’ SURE Technology Platform, which includes the patented MARtech™, is a unique technology that improves the speed, yield and stability of production cell lines used for therapeutic protein manufacturing. Based on proprietary human MAR (Matrix Attachment Region), MARtech™ enables cell population generation in just four weeks (after transfection) and stable cell line development in ten weeks (after transfection to first round of cell cloning). Additionally, MARtech™ has been found to significantly increase recombinant protein expression in mammalian cells in suspension and in serum-free up to twenty fold.
About Selexis
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Selexis is a privately held biotechnology company
dedicated to the development of innovative technologies and expert services. Selexis offers
comprehensive and rapid solutions for the development of stable, high yield mammalian cell lines
used in recombinant protein manufacturing.. The Company’s unique SURE Technology Platform,
which includes Selexis’ forth generation patented MARtech™, reduces traditional cell line
development (DHFR) from 12 months to 3 months (after transfection to isolating cell clones)
without any change in the scale-up process. For more information please visit
http://www.selexis.com
About Cambrex
Cambrex Corporation is a global, diversified life sciences company dedicated to providing products and services to accelerate and improve the discovery and commercialization of human therapeutics. The Company employs approximately 2000 worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.cambrex.com
PowerCho™ is a trademark of Cambrex Corporation or its subsidiaries.