BAC
and Octapharma to develop custom ligand for recombinant plasma protein
Naarden, The Netherlands, 13th March 2008 – BAC BV, the Bio Affinity
Company, announced today that it has entered into a collaboration with
Octapharma AG (Lachen, Switzerland), a plasma protein company specialising in
the development, production and sale of plasma derivatives and recombinant
plasma proteins. The objective of the collaboration is to discover and develop
a custom CaptureSelect® ligand for the purification of a recombinant Factor IX
product, developed by Octapharma for the prophylaxis and treatment of bleeding
in Haemophilia B. Octapharma will use the CaptureSelect ligand in the
downstream processing of this protein from mammalian cell lines.
BAC has a proven reputation for successful partnering with pharmaceutical and
biotech companies to develop ligands for a variety of applications, from
monoclonal antibodies and fusion proteins, to viruses and plasma proteins.
“We have proven that we can design ligands for almost any purification
challenge,” commented Laurens Sierkstra, CEO of BAC. “Our technology platform
enables us to work with our partners to produce affinity media that is custom
designed for each individual purification target, meaning that our customers
can have absolute confidence that their purification process will be a
success. We are very much looking forward to working with Octapharma on this
project.”
BAC’s CaptureSelect ligand technology is based on unique Camelid single chain
antibody fragments, which can be selected for desirable chromatographic
characteristics and produced at high-titre in a proprietary S. cerevisiae
strain. The CaptureSelect ligands are suitable and available for use at
commercial scale biomanufacturing and for bench research.
-Ends-
About BAC
BAC BV – the Bio Affinity Company – offers a wide range of products and
services for affinity purification of biological materials from complex media.
The Company’s proprietary CaptureSelect® affinity ligands, based on Camelid
single chain antibody fragments, have been proven to be suitable in a wide
range of biological applications including Life Science Research and
Biomanufacturing.
CaptureSelect® ligand technology is based on selection of single chain
antibody fragments with desirable chromatographic characteristics including
robustness, high specificity and flexibility. Suitable ligands are cloned and
expressed in high-titers through an animal-free Saccharomyces cerevisiae-based
process.
BAC BV was established in 1995 as a Unilever subsidiary. Currently the Company
employs 28 people with an R&D laboratory facility in Vlaardingen and a
state-of-the-art ISO 9001 certified manufacturing plant in Naarden, the
Netherlands. For more information about BAC, visit our website at www.bac.nl.
For more information about CaptureSelect® products, visit our website at
www.captureselect.com
Media enquiries:
Kathryn Robertson, College Hill
Kathryn.Robertson@collegehill.com
Tel: +44 (0)1260 296 506
