Invitrogen And Biocon Announce Exclusive Agreement To Supply New Source Of Insulin To Global Cell Culture Market
Recombinant Human Insulin Derived from Animal Origin Free Cell Bank
Carlsbad, CA & Bangalore, India - Invitrogen Corporation, a provider of essential life science technologies for disease research and drug discovery, has signed an exclusive agreement with Biocon Limited to market pharmaceutical-grade insulin to the global cell culture market. The partnership with Biocon, India's leading biotechnology firm, will make it easier for pharma and biotech companies to rapidly access this high quality reagent for biological therapeutic manufacturing at a competitive price.
Biocon insulin has shown equivalence to other insulin sources that have been used for cell culture bio-manufacturing. Insulin is a widely used growth factor to delay apoptosis in mammalian cell culture which leads to increased productivity.
"Bioprocess scientists have increasingly used insulin to enhance their cell culture, but can only access the pharmaceutical-grade insulin in bulk quantities from a few suppliers," said Jeff Greenberg, Invitrogen vice president of Bioproduction. "Invitrogen and Biocon are now offering a competitive alternative which scientists, process engineers and manufacturers can confidently use to increase the productivity of their biological therapeutics."
The insulin, which is European and US pharmacopoeia (Ph Eur/USP) grade, is manufactured at Biocon's state-of-the-art facility built to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards in Bangalore. The recombinant human insulin is derived from an animal-origin-free-cell bank and is processed using porcine trypsin, thus eliminating the risk of BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) contamination. This helps to produce a high quality reagent that can be used to improve productivity of manufacturing biological therapeutics from cell culture.
Abhijit Zutshi, Biocon Limited head of North American Operations, added, "Invitrogen has a well-established reputation in the cell culture market for providing the best reagents. Their confidence in our insulin is an excellent endorsement of its quality, and we are proud to have them as our exclusive partner worldwide."
SOURCE: Invitrogen Corporation and Biocon Limited