Pierre Fabre Enters into License Agreement with Selexis SA to Use SURE Technology Platform for Mammalian Cell Line Development
-- Pierre Fabre Will Use Technology to Research Therapeutic Candidates --
Geneva, Switzerland – June 20, 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 a non-exclusive research license agreement with Institut de Recherche Pierre Fabre (IRPF) under which Pierre Fabre will have the rights to use Selexis’ SURE Technology Platform to develop mammalian cell lines for use in the research of protein therapeutic candidates.
“As the third largest pharmaceutical company in France, Pierre Fabre’s choice to use the SURE Technology Platform validates the impact Selexis’ technologies are making in the pharma industry,” said Dr. Igor Fisch, CEO of Selexis.
Under the terms of the license agreement, Pierre Fabre will have the right to internally use the SURE Technology Platform to engineer production cell lines for the research of Pierre Fabre protein therapeutic candidates. The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
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.
“The SURE Technology Platform will able us to quickly develop high producing mammalian cell lines for antigen production, and as such to explore protein candidates in a more timely and cost effective manner.” said Dr. Nathalie Corvaia, Research Director, at the Pierre Fabre Immunology Center in Saint Julien-en-Genevois.”
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 Pierre Fabre Médicament R&D
The Pierre Fabre Group, the second largest independent laboratory in France, employs some
8620 people, and achieved 1.48 billion euros in sales in 2005. Operating in the area of ethical
medicine, health products and dermo-cosmetic with the brands Avène, Ducray, A-derma,
Galénic, Klorane and René Furterer, it achieves 44 % of its business abroad. Pierre Fabre
Médicament, the pharmaceutical branch of the Pierre Fabre Group, made Research and
Development its core business and the key to its future. With over 1 000 researchers, Pierre
Fabre Médicament dedicates 25 % of its annual sales to R&D, in five major therapeutic areas in
terms of public health: oncology (the priority R&D area of Pierre Fabre Médicament, with 50 % of
all R&D expenses), central nervous system, cardiology, internal medicine/urology, dermatology.