Horizon Discovery Group announced that one of the licensees to its Bioproduction cell line technology has used Horizon’s cell line as part of a successful Investigational New Drug (IND) filing with the United States Food and Drug Administration.

This successful filing demonstrates that the cells and recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) engineering technology used in Horizon’s generation have been assessed as safe from a regulatory perspective for the manufacture of biotherapeutics for use in humans.

Industry adoption of Horizon’s CHO K1 GS knockout cell line has provided the Horizon with a strong source of repeatable revenue that has accelerated in recent months, with over 20 full commercial licenses in place and a strong pipeline of new licenses pending.

Horizon licenses its CHO K1 cell line broadly across the industry including to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and biosimilar companies, as well as to Contract Manufacturing Organizations. 

Richard Vellacott, interim chief executive officer and chief financial officer, Horizon Discovery, said, “Next-generation biotherapeutics require next-generation manufacturing platforms. We are pleased that our highly specialized gene-edited cell line for bioproduction is not only being widely adopted by customers of all sizes but has now also been validated as a highly effective platform for regulatory submissions. Today’s announcement enables Horizon to access a wider customer base and represents a significant milestone in our goal of harnessing the power of the cell to empower customers across the life sciences.”