Avid Bioservices, a biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), and Aragen Bioscience, a contract research organization (CRO) focused on accelerating pre-clinical biologics product development, have entered a co-marketing agreement that will provide clients an integrated “sequence-to-manufacturing” service. Under terms of the non-exclusive agreement, the companies will offer customers Aragen’s cell line development expertise integrated with Avid’s upstream and downstream process development and analytical services to drive efficiencies and reduce overall timelines for delivering CGMP bulk drug substances.
 
“With pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies focused on delivering their innovative medicines to patients as quickly as possible, this alliance aims to speed the entire CGMP manufacturing process by having a single, integrated team oversee a single, integrated project timeline with significant built-in process efficiencies,” said Timothy Compton, chief commercial officer, Avid. “We view this collaboration with Aragen as a significant win for current and future clients of both companies and we are excited to contribute our deep CDMO expertise to the partnership, particularly our more than 15 years of commercial product manufacturing experience.”
 
Axel Schleyer, chief executive officer, Aragen, said, “I am excited about this partnership that will enable us to accelerate drug development timelines and deliver new biologic therapeutics to patients faster by integrating two best-in-class offerings to our customers. Our services in discovery, cell line development, which includes our innovative RapTr™ platform, protein production and preclinical testing are a great match with Avid’s clinical and commercial manufacturing capabilities. We look forward to this collaboration that advances novel ideas into breakthrough medicines.”