NevoLine, Univercells’ bioproduction system, will be installed at Batavia Biosciences’ polio dedicated facility in Leiden, Netherlands.
NevoLine is an automated bioproduction system designed by Univercells to produce inactivated polio vaccines (sIPV).
The company created it to deliver safer, faster and closed bioprocessing in a smaller footprint by chaining unit steps into a continuous process.
By doing so, users can achieve high yields with less money and time invested. In a statement, Hugues Bultot, CEO and co-founder of Univercells said, “A facility designed with four NevoLine units would deliver up to 50 million sIPV doses per year for an estimated capital cost of $20M.”
The system was initially developed as part of a $12m (€10.5m) Grand Challenges grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to deliver affordable sIPV through a consortium of Univercells, Batavia Biosciences, and Merck Millipore.
The sIPV created will cost under $0.30 (£0.23) per trivalent dose. According to Univercells, this cost per dose represents a five-fold reduction in expense, compared to current manufacturing technologies.
From this development, the consortium received a $4m grant extension for the scale-up of the manufacturing system and processes in preparation for clinical and commercial applications.
Per the collaboration, Univercells was responsible for the system while Batavia Biosciences managed the polio manufacturing process, and Merck Millipore supplied the purification membrane.
According to Pierre Morgon, non-executive director and advisor to the CEO, Univercells, the NevoLine system, “heralds a new era in vaccine production,” as there is a significant reduction in the amount of upfront capital and manufacturing footprint required for bulk vaccine and biotherapeutics production. He said in a statement that this technology, “will shake the markets to their foundations and enable greater competition by lowering barriers to entry.”