GENEVA, July 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Selexis SA, a Swiss-based biotechnology company offering DNA based technologies and supportive services to enable significantly improved drug discovery, development, and cGMP production of biologics, announced today it has partnered with the National Research Counsel of Canada’s Biological Research Institute (NRC-BRI) to offer the NRC-BRI HEK293 cell technologies for the contract development of high-performance stable human cell lines enabled by the Selexis Genetic Element(TM) and Selexis SURE Cell Line Development(SM) Services.
HEK293 cells are the most widely used HUMAN cell line in biotechnology industry and the ONLY human cell line used for the bioproduction of an FDA approved biopharmaceutical drug.
Xigrils(R), a recombinant form of human Activated Protein C, is marketed by Eli Lilly and Company for the treatment of severe sepsis. Xigrils(R) was approved by US-FDA in November of 2001 and is produced using HEK293 cells.
Dr. Igor Fisch, President and CEO of Selexis, commented:
“Partnering with the NCR-BRI to offer their well characterized human cell line is a perfect complement to our well developed and proven CHO platform, especially considering the fact that HEK293 cells have already been approved for the production of a recombinant protein drug.”
“For over a decade Dr. Amine Kamen and his team of researchers at the BRI have done an outstanding job of developing their HEK293 program for large scale production purposes and now Selexis has the opportunity to make it more widely available with improved performance characteristics using our Selexis Genetic Element(TM) technology and our Selexis SURE Cell Line Development(SM) Services.”
“This partnership will further reinforces Selexis’ position as world leader of DNA-based technologies that significantly improve the long-term and stable expression of transgenes in a variety of eukaryotic host systems.”
Dr. Pierre-Alain Girod, CSO of Selexis, commented:
“This combined program will be highly desirable to biotech companies needing the rapid development of a high performance cell line expressing proteins with human glycosylation patterns. This new platform will be a viable option to our CHO program for more difficult to express proteins.”
About Selexis HEK293 Services:
Selexis is offering the global biotech market a proven avenue for the rapid development of high-performance HEK293 cell lines prepared under ICH guidelines and ready for cGMP manufacturing. Using the Selexis SURE Cell Line Development program, which is based on the use of the Selexis Genetic Element(TM) technologies, Selexis is now offering the development of stable clonal cell lines in as little as 12 weeks from transfection.
About Selexis:
Selexis is a privately held biotechnology company dedicated to the development of innovative technologies and expert services that enables significant improvements in the time, effort and costs required to develop and maintain high-performance mammalian cell lines used in the expression of pharmaceutically relevant proteins (i.e. targets, MABs, rProteins). The company’s core intellectual property portfolio is based on the discovery and application of epigenetic DNA based elements that control the dynamic organization of chromatin within all mammalian cells. Application of the Selexis Genetic Elements(TM) using the SURE Cell Line Development process has enabled the rapid development of high performance cell lines for a number of pharmaceutically important programs.
Xigrils(R) is a registered trademark of Eli Lilly and Company.
CONTACT: Andrew F. Sandford of Selexis, +1-617-595-5769,
andrew.sanford@selexis.com
Web site: http://www.selexis.com/
