City of Hope Takes a Commercial Product License to Use ProBioGen’s AGE1.CR® Vaccine Manufacturing Platform

ProBioGen AG has announced a commercial product license agreement with City of Hope, a world-renowned independent research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases, granting City of Hope® the rights to use ProBioGen's cell line AGE1.CR.pIX® for manufacturing City of Hope's COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

ProBioGen's innovative vaccine development platform is expected to be ideally suited for the production of large quantities of City of Hope's synthetic MVA-based COVID-19 vaccine. It will enable City of Hope and/or its commercial partners to manufacture the vaccine at scale for late stage clinical development and eventually, the market to address the urgent needs of the ongoing pandemic. The vaccine is currently being tested in a phase 1 clinical trial, and was manufactured on City of Hope's main campus within its Center for Biomedicine & Genetics, one of its three manufacturing facilities that meet strict GMP (good manufacturing practice) guidelines.

ProBioGen's duck suspension cell line AGE1.CR.pIX was designed to serve the industrial, GMP-compliant production of a wide variety of viruses in large bioreactors and is free of any adventitious agents. It has already proven its great utility for viral vector-based vaccine productions in various clinical trials.

Don Diamond, Ph.D., the vaccine's principal investigator and co-inventor of the patents covering City of Hope's proprietary synthetic MVA vaccine platform, said:"ProBioGen's cell line is expected to enable a key step of City of Hope's COVID-19 manufacturing strategy to move from primary cells to a continuous suspension cell line and thus enable the rapid and flexible manufacture of our uniquely engineered viral vector vaccine."

Dr. Volker Sandig, Chief Scientific Officer at ProBioGen stated: "Easily scalable plug and play technology for cost effective vaccine production is of highest importance particularly for Emergency Vaccines. Finding high performance from the first experiments on, we are pleased to complement City of Hope's ambitious COVID-19 vaccine strategy with our manufacturing approach."

About ProBioGen

ProBioGen is a specialist in the development and manufacturing of complex therapeutic proteins.
The combination of ProBioGen's CHO.RiGHT® expression platform and state-of-the-art process development platforms, together with intelligent and innovative product-specific technologies yield biologics with optimized properties.
Rapid and integrated cell line and process development, comprehensive analytical development and robust GMP manufacturing is performed by a highly skilled and experienced team. All services and technologies are embedded in a total quality management system to assure compliance with international ISO and GMP standards (EMA/FDA).
ProBioGen has been operational for more than 25 years. At two locations in Berlin, more than 200 employees contribute to the creation of new therapies in medicine and groundbreaking innovations worldwide through their creative and meticulous work.

About City of Hope®

City of Hope is an independent biomedical research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. Founded in 1913, City of Hope is a leader in bone marrow transplantation and immunotherapy such as CAR T cell therapy.
City of Hope's translational research and personalized treatment protocols advance care throughout the world. Human synthetic insulin, monoclonal antibodies, and numerous breakthrough cancer drugs are based on technology developed at the institution. Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) became a part of City of Hope in 2016.
AccessHope™, a wholly owned subsidiary, was launched in 2019, dedicated to serving employers and their health care partners by providing access to City of Hope's exceptional cancer expertise. A National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, City of Hope is ranked among the nation's "Best Hospitals" in cancer by U.S. News & World Report. Its main campus is located near Los Angeles, with additional locations throughout Southern California and in Arizona.