On the eve of BIO 2009, DSM has announced that its proprietary XD Technology can boost bioreactor productivity and titers of mammalian cell culture processes by 5-10 fold for the production of proteins and antibodies. The company said that recent studies completed at the R&D labs of DSM Biologics in Groningen, The Netherlands, demonstrated that the yields from CHO-based cell cultures “can be increased 5-10 fold over previous fed-batch processes using only off the shelf, commercially available media.” DSM’s XD Technology has been tested for antibody and recombinant protein production across multiple cell lines, and the increase was realized in all cases.

Jaap Schilder, site director Groningen, remarked, “This opens the door to a completely novel way of supplying drug substance for clinical trials and for market needs. The XD process increases the overall output of a facility dramatically and the process duration and handling is similar to any fed-batch process. Development spending, time to market and cost of goods will all be significantly reduced by applying this technology. Now, up to several kilograms of drug substance can be manufactured in a single batch from small disposable bioreactors.”

Karen King, president at DSM Biologics, added, “Clients can use the XD Technology within their existing infrastructure or it can be the basis of an optimized new plant design offering costs-of-goods advantages and reductions in capital expenditure.”