CEVEC And PlasmidFactory Announce Collaboration Regarding Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) Production

- Parties intend to jointly enable AAV production in CEVEC's CAP(R)GT cells in combination with PlasmidFactory's broad AAV serotype plasmid portfolio

- Collaboration will significantly increase the value of CAP(R)GT for CEVEC customers by broadening the spectrum of available adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors for gene therapy applications

Cologne, Germany, May 11, 2017 - CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH (CEVEC), the expert in the production of tailor-made recombinant glycoproteins and gene therapy vectors, today announced that the Company will collaborate with PlasmidFactory, the leading contract manufacturer and service provider for plasmid and minicircle DNA.

The collaboration will allow CEVEC access to PlasmidFactory's broad portfolio of AAV helper and packaging plasmids of the pDG family. The pDG plasmids support transfection of cells for AAV production, where the essential viral helper and packaging functions are located on only one plasmid, greatly facilitating the production of high AAV titers. CEVEC previously tested the performance of different plasmids encoding for various AAV serotypes in CAP(R)GT cell lines successfully. The parties will jointly publish the results and agreed to promote the other party's products and services.

"We are very excited about the high titers obtained with PlasmidFactory's plasmids encoding various AAV serotypes in our proprietary CAP(R)GT cell lines. These distinct AAV serotypes differ in their tropism, or the types of cells they infect, making AAV in general a very useful system for preferentially transducing specific cell types. Choosing the right AAV serotype may also reduce the risk of a potential recognition by human serum antibodies," commented Dr. Nicole Faust, Chief Scientific Officer of CEVEC. "This collaboration significantly expands our capabilities regarding different AAV serotypes which can be efficiently produced on our CAP(R)GT platform. It also broadens the AAV production options for our existing AAV customers and further establishes CAP(R)GT technologies as the global production standard in AAV-based gene therapy."

The pDG plasmids for the production of AAVs, exclusively licensed by PlasmidFactory from the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), form a two-plasmid system. In contrast to the triple transfection with three different plasmids needed in conventional AAV vector manufacturing processes, pDG AAV plasmids only need two components: A plasmid carrying the gene to be transferred and the corresponding pDG plasmid containing all the information for the propagation and packaging of AAV vector plasmids (the so-called «helper & packaging» functions). These plasmids are available from PlasmidFactory's In Stock Service for immediate delivery in Research Grade and up to High Quality Grade for GMP viral vector manufacturing.

About CEVEC:

CEVEC is a center of expertise for the production of biopharmaceuticals using a unique human cell-based expression system.

CAP(R)GT is a regulatory endorsed expression platform for scalable viral vector production. CEVEC has successfully developed CAP(R)GT suspension cell-derived viral packaging and producer cell lines which enable better scale-up and competitive production costs when compared to adherent cell culture systems. CAP(R)GT suspension cell lines grow to high cell densities and show a broad viral propagation spectrum. Gene therapy vectors such as lentivirus (LV), adenovirus (AV) and adeno-associated virus (AAV) can be produced at industrial scale.

For more information, please visit http://www.cevec.com.

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About PlasmidFactory GmbH & Co. KG:

PlasmidFactory is a biopharmaceutical company with core competences in production, analysis and application of plasmid and minicircle DNA.

For more information, please visit https://plasmidfactory.com.

Contact:
CEVEC Pharmaceuticals GmbH
Dr. Nico Scheer
Chief Business Officer
T.:+49 221 46020800
E.: scheer@cevec.com
www.cevec.com

MC Services AG
Anne Hennecke
Public Relations
T.: +49 211 52925222
E.: anne.hennecke@mc-services.eu

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