The new Freedom CHO-S and DG-44 kits include fully documented current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) cell lines, reagents, culture media and protocols, and are designed to simplify the early stages of new biological drug development.
“Life Technologies’’ cell line development kits showcase our ability to integrate proprietary technologies into simple, innovative solutions that accelerate the pathway from molecule to market,” said Mark Stevenson, president and chief operating officer of Life Technologies.
“Our royalty-free Freedom kits enable faster early stage development, and allow customers to focus on what they do best: developing new biologics to treat diseases.”
The company says its kits can reduce the time from transfection to stable cell line production from six to four months, thereby eliminating the need for time-consuming and complicated media adaptation steps.
Collaboration
Developed in collaboration with Berlin-based ProBiogen, Life says its Freedom CHO-S kit provides biopharma drug developers with all the key components needed to rapidly and systematically generate Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell lines.
The cells have been engineered to express recombinant proteins as therapeutics for the treatment of a range of diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, anaemia, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
According to Life, CHO cells play a critical part in the $20bn (€14bn) bioproduction market through their use in the development of clinical and commercial biologics.
Mixed results
The release of Life’s new cell line development kits comes soon after the company posted mixed financial results for Q1 2011.
Figures showed revenues for the period increased by barely 1 per cent year on year from $884.9m (€621m) in 2010 to $895.9m (€628.9m) - just short of the $905.4m (€635.6m) forecast by industry analysts.
Life put the cause down to the “extraordinary events that occurred in Japan”, which resulted delays to the launch of its 5500 SOLiD and 550 XL gene sequencers, and disrupted its manufacturing operations.