Exothera has acquired NevoLine Upstream manufacturing equipment from Univercells Technologies.
Based on principles of intensification and chaining, the upstream manufacturing platform is designed for the development of viral vaccines, viral vectors, and oncolytic viruses. The equipment will be installed at the GMP plant, based in Jumet, Belgium (Univercells Campus). This 1,900 sqm, turn-key facility will offer 900 sqm of GMP production area dedicated to upstream and downstream process development, as well as clinical and commercial GMP manufacturing. On the same campus, a second facility of 5,500 sqm is planned to be ready for January 2022.
This platform was selected because it offers substantial increases in volumetric productivity, Exothera claims, enabling significant development and production cost-reduction opportunity. The scale-X technology at the core of the NevoLine offers scalability from R&D to GMP while accommodating a range of viral targets.
“Optimizing the production will allow us to have a significant impact on the quantity of product we can manufacture, and the associated Cost of Goods,” said Christian Borgniet, COO of Exothera. “Current gene therapy treatments are extremely expensive. Exothera’s mission is to make these life-changing therapies affordable to as many patients as possible. The NevoLine platform will help us to reach this goal.”
“The installation of the NevoLine technology at Exothera is an important milestone for us”, said Vasily Medvedev, Head of Development at Exothera. “We believe that for the target viral vectors processes, the NevoLine system will allow us to reach new levels in productivity and process performance compared to conventional technologies. We are looking forward to using this equipment as a key element in our manufacturing missions.”