Millipore Corporation signs licence agreement with Bayer HealthCare

Millipore Corporation has entered into a worldwide, non-exclusive licence agreement with Bayer HealthCare to use Millipore's UCOE (Ubiquitous Chromatin Opening Element) technology to manufacture its biologic drugs.

The licence will enable Bayer to manufacture recombinant proteins in mammalian cells more efficiently by generating higher protein yields in its upstream bioprocessing operations. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Bayer HealthCare plans to expand the use of the UCOE technology from small-scale use in research and development to large scale manufacturing to help it reduce the high cost of manufacturing recombinant protein-based drugs.

The process of manufacturing biologic drugs such as recombinant proteins often begins with growing mammalian cells in a bioreactor. These cells produce the proteins that form the basis of biologic drugs. Millipore's UCOE technology helps biopharmaceutical companies to identify effectively which cells will be the most effective in producing proteins during large-scale manufacturing.

Isolating these stable and highly productive cell lines can improve the yield and consistency of biopharma manufacturing processes: quick identification of cell lines is a critical factor in improving productivity and therefore the cost of manufacturing recombinant protein-based drugs.

"We have built a successful relationship with Bayer over a number of years, and we are excited about their commitment to the UCOE technology," said Dr Andrew Bulpin, vice president of Millipore's upstream bioprocessing business unit. "This licence is another example of how we can help pharmaceutical and biotech companies efficiently manufacture biologic drugs for both commercial use and for use in clinical development."

Millipore's UCOE technology, which was licensed from the laboratory of D. Michael Antoniou at King's College, London, can be used for the fast and simple generation of proteins at small scale for drug discovery and research, as well as for identifying stable and highly productive cell lines suitable for larger-scale manufacturing. Other applications include gene therapy, transgenics, and generation of cell lines for drug screening.

UCOE technology has been licensed by more than 50 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in North America, Europe and Japan, including Medarex, Novartis and Maxygen.