Merck Becomes One of the First CDMOs to Provide Full Viral Vector Offering with Launch of VirusExpress 293 Adeno-Associated Virus Production Platform
August 9, 2022 – BioManufacturing –
09 Aug 2022, Darmstadt, Germany: Merck, a leading science and technology company, has launched the VirusExpress 293 Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) Production Platform, making it one of the first CDMOs and technology-developers to provide a
full viral vector manufacturing offering including AAV, Lentiviral,
CDMO, CTO, and process development. This new platform enables
biopharmaceutical companies to increase the speed to clinical
manufacturing while reducing process development time and costs.
‘Cell and gene therapies offer the potential for curative treatments
and can be commercialized in half the time compared to traditional
therapies,’ said Dirk Lange, Head of Life Science Services, Life Science
business sector at Merck. ‘By increasing dose yields and dramatically
reducing process development time, our VirusExpress 293 AAV
Production Platform will accelerate manufacturing of these therapies,
ultimately delivering lifesaving treatments to patients faster.’
The new platform is an extension of the companyís VirusExpress offering, which can reduce process development time by up to 40
percent, based on Merckís experience as a CDMO. The companyís
VirusExpress Lentiviral Production Platform has enabled
customers to increase the speed to clinical manufacturing, achieve five
times higher titer than the leading competitor, and transition a legacy
process to a templated solution.
Merckís VirusExpress Platforms offer a simplified
upstream workflow for the production of AAV and Lentivirus, making
processes easier to manage, adjust and scale. In addition to
accelerating process development, the suspension culture format allows
for larger batch yields to enable more patient doses. Additionally,
suspension culture is amenable to scalable robust manufacturing
processes, while being less labor-intensive. The chemically defined cell
culture media eliminates the safety, regulatory and supply chain
concerns related to animal- and human-derived materials. Flexible
licensing allows companies to manufacture vectors by using Merckís
contract manufacturing capabilities and expertise with access to both
the upstream and downstream templates or by using in-house development
or a third-party.
The Life Science business sector of Merck is a leading CDMO and has
been involved in this space since clinical trials for gene therapy began
in the 1990s. In October 2021, the company opened its second Carlsbad,
California-based facility, more than doubling its existing production
capacity to support large-scale commercial manufacturing.
