Bayer offers biotech services to external clients
The biotechnology department of Bayer's pharmaceutical division based in Wuppertal Elberfeld is now able to offer its expertise to external clients. Services including tailor-made proteins, monoclonal antibodies or various fermentation products are available to both start-up biotech companies seeking a partner for development projects and more traditional enterprises from the pharmaceutical industry looking to outsource their contract manufacturing to a reliable company with more than 30 years' experience.
'We can provide external contractors with individual solutions in almost all areas of classical and modern biotechnology, whether research, development or production,' explained Dr Hans-Dietrich Hoerlein, head of the biotechnology department in Bayer's pharmaceutical division.
Among the successful projects carried out in the recent past is the development of a complex process for the fermentation of acarbose, the active ingredient in the antidiabetic drug Glucobay. For Kogenate, a Bayer product for the treatment of hemophilia, the Wuppertal biotechnology experts developed a monoclonal antibody that is required to purify this product. The department also has experience in the manufacture of recombinant proteins, the development of biotransformation reactions and the production of food additives.
Facilities available at Bayer Pharma Biotechnology include 11 laboratory units offering a range of technologies from classical/recombinant methods of strain optimisation to modern genetic engineering procedures and latest product analysis methods. The biotechnology pilot plant can deal with both technical process development, including scale-up work from 10l to 40m3, and the production of intermediate and bulk products.
The entire purification facility is conceived as an explosion-proof zone, making it possible to work with organic solvents, even in large-scale projects.