Clean Cells has acquired French mass spectrometry specialist Anaquant to expand its analytical capabilities for biopharmaceutical quality control and protein characterisation.
The deal, announced on Thursday, gives Clean Cells full ownership of Anaquant’s intellectual property, mass spectrometry-based analytical platform, equipment, ReadyBeads technology and client relationships.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Beyond conventional HCP testing
The acquisition, Clean Cells said, is intended to bridge early-stage analytical development with GMP testing, enabling biopharmaceutical developers to use a single analytical partner as programmes progress towards regulatory submission.
A key focus will be host cell protein (HCP) analysis.
HCPs are process-related impurities that can remain in biologics following upstream production and downstream purification.
Their levels and composition can vary according to the expression system and manufacturing process, making effective characterisation an important component of biopharmaceutical quality control.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) states that HCP testing will typically form part of an active substance specification and that routine control remains important because HCPs can represent a potential safety concern.
While ELISA remains widely used for HCP measurement, mass spectrometry (MS) is now increasingly being deployed as a complementary analytical approach.
Unlike antibody-based assays, MS can identify and quantify individual HCP species, providing greater insight into impurity profiles and potentially improving understanding of clearance and high-risk proteins.
Recent reviews describe MS-based HCP analysis as an increasingly important component of modern biopharma quality control.
A broader analytical offering
Anaquant brings its ReadyBeads technology, a reference-standard platform designed to support reproducible mass spectrometry analysis.
The firm's existing capabilities span intact-mass analysis, peptide mapping, post-translational modification analysis and targeted and global HCP quantification.
The timing also follows a growing formalisation of MS-based HCP testing. For example, USP 1132.1, “Residual Host Cell Protein Measurement in Biopharmaceuticals by Mass Spectrometry”, which was published last year, provides a framework for LC-MS/MS-based identification and quantification of HCPs as a complement or alternative to traditional immunoassays.
Under the acquisition, Anaquant’s team will join Clean Cells, with CEO and founder Tanguy Fortin continuing to lead protein analytics.
"Anaquant was built on the idea that mass spectrometry-based protein characterisation should be as accessible and as reliable as any other standard quality control method in biopharmaceutical development," he said.
"Over the years, we have proven that the technology works and that we can provide our clients with valuable data for their programmes. Joining Clean Cells means we can now take this a step further."
The GMP infrastructure and commercial reach that Clean Cells brings are exactly what we need to serve clients across the full development lifecycle, not just at the research stage.
Clean Cells said the combined platform will span method development and validation through to GMP-grade release testing, supporting biologics including monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, phages and viral vectors.
