Chromos has been active of late securing partners for its proprietary ACE (Artificial Chromosome Expression) technology, and has licensing agreements in place with Johnson & Johnson's biotechnology arm Centocor, Switzerland's Lonza and Cambridge Antibody technology in the UK.
ACE is a gene-delivery technology used to generate high-expressing cell lines for protein production and is claimed to offer improved speed and protein yields over rival platforms. The agreement with AppTec gives it scale-up and manufacturing capabilities to complement its cell line engineering.
"This relationship will continue to increase the number of ACE System-based licenses, generating a growing revenue stream with the upside potential of royalty payments for products that reach the market," said Alistair Duncan, president and CEO of Chromos
Under the non-exclusive agreement, Chromos and AppTec will coordinate their marketing efforts to offer a complete range of development and manufacturing services. This will enable customers to advance product candidates from discovery to commercial manufacture using Chromos' proprietary ACE System for engineering production quality cell lines and AppTec's services for comprehensive testing, process development and cGMP manufacturing.
In addition, the parties will collaborate on optimising the application of the ACE System to industrial-scale biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.