Firm also offered commercial use rights to a number of institutions already using the lines.
Life Technologies negotiated CHO cell-line license agreements with a number of companies, giving them rights to produce recombinant proteins used as therapeutic agents and vaccines. Detailed cell-line history documentation packages that are suitable for submission to the FDA as part of IND filings are provided to licensees, eliminating the need for expensive preliminary testing.
New licensees include Advanced BioScience Laboratories, CNA Development, Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical, and DiNonA of Korea, U.K. firm RecipharmCobra Biologics, evitria SA in Switzerland, Fusion Antibodies of Northern Ireland, Indian Immunologicals, and others. Commercial-use rights have additionally been offered to many of the hundreds of institutions already using Life Technologies’ cell lines for R&D, the company reports.
Life Technologies explains that its CHO lines are optimized for growth in suspension in the company’s chemically defined GIBCO® media, permitting protein manufacturers to obtain good yields while reducing serum-associated risks. They have also been shown to be free of standard pathogens, making them well suited for therapeutic manufacturing, the firm adds.
“This new global licensing program is part of a larger strategy to monetize our rich intellectual property, technology, and product portfolio,” remarks Paul Grossman, Ph.D., svp of strategy and corporate development at Life Technologies. “The program is a stellar example of one of the creative ways in which the company plans to provide broader access to the company’s intellectual property including patents, biological materials, trademarks, and trade secrets, which are designed to lead to revolutionary developments in drug and vaccine manufacture to ultimately improve healthcare.”
Life Technologies possesses an intellectual property estate of approximately 3,900 patents and exclusive licenses. It obtained revenues of $3.3 billion in 2009, an increase of 5% over the $3.14 billion reported for 2008, as if Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems had been combined.
