Berlin-based glycoprotein specialist ProBioGen and City of Hope, American cancer research organisation, have announced a non-exclusive commercial licence agreement.
This will allow City of Hope to manufacture its synthetic MVA-based CMV vaccine using ProBioGen's cell-based and scalable viral manufacturing platform, AGE1.CR.pIX.
Choosing the right production platform is a critical step for the development and manufacturing of a viral vaccine candidate. AGE1.CR.pIX has proven industrial and biological properties that are optimised for this purpose.
It grows in suspension in a chemically-defined medium and has been designed to meet health authority guidelines. Therefore, it represents a modern and cost-effective production platform for large scale manufacture of vaccines for humans and animals.
"Easily scalable plug and play technology for cost-effective vaccine production is important," said Dr Volker Sandig, ProBioGen's Chief Scientific Officer. "We are delighted to support City of Hope with our transformative viral manufacturing platform to bring this vaccine into the clinic with the goal of protecting transplant recipients and immunocompromised patients from CMV infection and disease. The agreement underlines the increasing worldwide market acceptance of our AGE1.CR.pIX cell line as a true alternative to other methods.”
"City of Hope aims to accelerate our CMV vaccine program. AGE1.CR presents a versatile and robust manufacturing platform that will support a productive and flexible process. Our vaccine has been purposefully designed to be used to prevent congenital infections or control transplant-related infections,” said Don J. Diamond, Ph.D., the vaccine's principal investigator.