CEVEC to Introduce New Helper-Free AAV Packaging Cell Line for Scalable Stable Gene Therapy Vector Production at the Phacilitate Cell & Gene Therapy World Conference

CEVEC to introduce new helper-free AAV packaging cell line for scalable stable gene therapy vector production at the Phacilitate Cell & Gene Therapy World Conference

• Newly developed helper-free AAV packaging cell line provides unique solution for large-scale viral gene therapy vector production
  
• Easy and stable production processes, independent of transient transfection or helper virus
  
• Data from CEVEC’s successful proof-of-concept studies will be presented at the conference

Cologne, Germany, January 16, 2018 - CEVEC, the expert in the production of tailor-made recombinant glycoproteins and gene therapy vectors, today announced that the Company will introduce a new solution for scalable stable viral vector production for gene therapy applications at the Phacilitate Cell & Gene Therapy World conference to be held January 22 - 25, 2018 in Miami, Florida, USA.

Dr. Nicole Faust, CEO & CSO of CEVEC will present data from the Company’s successful proof-of-concept studies with these newly introduced cell lines on January 24, 2018 in the session at 11:15 am EST ” How to address viral and non-viral vector manufacturing capacity/supply shortfalls before they reach crisis point?”

Based on its proprietary CAP-GT manufacturing platform of suspension cell lines, CEVEC has successfully developed a novel AAV (adeno-associated virus) stable production system that allows for easy scale up in all existing bioreactor formats. In contrast to other currently used production systems, the Company’s stable viral packaging cell lines do neither require a laborious and costly transient transfection step nor the infection with a helper virus which is expensive to produce and needs to be removed during downstream processing. After stable integration of the gene of interest into CEVEC’s AAV packaging cells, industrial scale production comparable to current antibody manufacturing processes becomes feasible. CEVEC has already initiated selected client projects using these newly introduced cell lines and is further expanding its collaborations with other innovators in this field.

“AAV vectors are becoming increasingly important for gene therapy applications. With our stable, helper-free AAV packaging cell lines we are addressing the major obstacle of limited scalability of current manufacturing systems in this rapidly growing field - the so-called production gap. We are excited about the data to be presented at the conference. The newly developed cell lines will provide an excellent basis to further establish our proprietary CAP-GT manufacturing system as the industry standard for fully scalable, reproducible and highly efficient production of viral gene therapy vectors,” commented Dr. Nicole Faust, CEO & CSO of CEVEC.

“The feedback on the potential of such cell lines that we received from our clients has been extremely encouraging and we look forward to expanding our customer base in this field”, Dr. Nico Scheer, CBO of CEVEC added.

“Novel, robust helper-free AAV packaging cell lines could become an important tool to further enable cost-effective, large-scale production of viral vectors for future AAV gene therapy programs”, said Curran Simpson, SVP Technical Operations of REGENXBIO Inc., one of CEVEC’s partners in this field.

Parties interested in meeting with CEVEC at Phacilitate Cell & Gene Therapy World conference are requested to contact Dr. Nico Scheer at bizdev@cevec.com.

More information on the conference can be found under http://www.cellandgenetherapyworld.com/.

About CEVEC:

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

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

CAP-Go enables the production of proteins previously out of reach representing a significant proportion of the human proteome that is notoriously difficult to express in conventional cell lines such as CHO. The CAP-Go expression platform comprises a portfolio of glyco-optimized human suspension cell lines for the highly efficient production of a broad range of difficult to express recombinant proteins with authentic human post-translational modifications or on demand tailor made glycosylation patterns.

For more information, please visit www.cevec.com.
Follow CEVEC on LinkedIn.

Contact: