WALKERSVILLE, Md., Feb. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cambrex Bio Science Walkersville, Inc., a subsidiary of Cambrex and the world’s leading provider of cell systems, announced today that its client Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. completed their assessment of certain of its Clonetics(R) Conditionally Immortalized Cell Lines under the previously announced evaluation license and signed a one-year renewable license agreement to use a cell line in Chugai pharmaceutical drug discovery programs. Chugai is the first company to license this technology in Japan.
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“In the post genomic era, drug discovery research using human cells is becoming more and more important. Our research laboratory has validated that the Clonetics(R) Conditionally Immortalized Cell Strains maintain feature and function for a long period of time. As a result, Chugai has decided to license the cell strains for our drug discovery research program for metabolic diseases. We believe this will speed the drug discovery process and lead to the development of more valuable drugs,” commented Dr. Tatsuo Miyauchi, Vice President and General Manager of Research Division, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
“Clonetics(R) Conditionally Immortalized Cell Lines support relevant and more efficient drug discovery by helping researchers identify poor drug candidates early and find the best candidates faster,” commented Shawn Cavanagh, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Cambrex Bioproducts business. “We are confident the cell line will positively impact the productivity of the Chugai Pharmaceutical drug discovery program.”
Under the terms of the renewable license agreement, Chugai Pharmaceutical Company will use one of the conditionally immortalized cell lines for a period of one year in their pharmaceutical drug discovery program. The license agreement has been lead by Cambrex’s exclusive distributor in Japan, GeneFrontier Corporation. Further financial details of the agreement are not disclosed.
The licensed cell lines were created using a clone of a specially modified large T antigen and licensed telomerase technology. Cambrex continues to invest in several programs to conditionally immortalize different cell types critical to understand and manage metabolic disease.
Conditionally immortalized cells can be generated in volumes sufficient for high throughput screening (HTS), are homogenous and express normal markers similar to primary cells, thus managing the key limitations of primary cells in drug discovery. Conditional immortalization allows cells to divide indefinitely, retain normal function and appearance, and produce uniform cell populations for functional cell-based assays and long-term gene expression studies. Availability of these cell lines will speed drug discovery by eliminating the cell senescence barriers that make high throughput screening of primary cells impractical.
For more information on Cambrex cell lines, please contact: D.G. Ferneyhough, Segment Manager, Cell Biology, 301-898-7025, extension 2417, d.ferneyhough@cambrex.com.
About Cambrex Bio Science Walkersville, Inc.
Cambrex Bio Science Walkersville, Inc., a Cambrex subsidiary and the world leader in the technical development of cell systems and cell lines, provides hundreds of normal primary derived cells, adult stem cells, separation systems and cell culture media that are manufactured and tested to provide optimum performance. Cell-based assays for toxicology testing, molecular biology tools, products and services for endotoxin detection and serum-free media are also available. Cambrex Bio Science Walkersville, Inc. is the foremost contract service provider to emerging cell therapy companies.
About Cambrex Corporation
Cambrex 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 1900 worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.cambrex.com.
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CONTACT: D.G. Ferneyhough, Segment Manager, Cell Biology, +1-301-898-7025, ext. 2417, d.ferneyhough@cambrex.com
Web site: http://www.cambrex.com/
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