JSR Life Sciences has acquired Selexis SA, a provider of mammalian (suspension-adapted CHO-K1) cell-line generation technologies. Once completed, this transaction will mark the second major biotechnology addition to the JSR group of companies following JSR Corporation’s acquisition of KBI Biopharma in 2015. Selexis will be integrated within KBI Biopharma’s operations to create a streamlined “Gene to GMP” service offering for the biopharmaceutical industry.

“Selexis has the best-in-class cell-line development technology and offers the ability to solve some of the most difficult expression challenges in biologics development,” said Eric Johnson, president of JSR’s life sciences division. “JSR holds quality as the highest of its values and we see that same focus in Selexis. The Selexis technologies seamlessly integrate into the biologics development continuum, spanning discovery to commercialization. This allows us in conjunction with KBI Biopharma to move one step closer in our vision to become the biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) of the 21st century.”

With biopharma’s ever-evolving pipeline of novel protein therapeutics, such as bi-specific antibodies, multimeric proteins and Fc-fusion proteins, CHO cells are being pushed to their productivity limits in drug development and manufacturing. Biopharmaceutical companies working on these promising new therapies are increasingly struggling with development challenges such as weak protein expression, low-yield purification steps, and poorly optimized analytical techniques. Without addressing these challenges, many of these new medicines capable of treating serious, intractable diseases would never advance out of the pre-clinical phase. Selexis has made its mark with its SUREtechnology Platform that facilitates the rapid, stable, and cost-effective generation of cell lines producing virtually any recombinant protein. KBI has a proven track record of delivering therapeutic candidates into the clinic by leveraging its strengths in process development and analytics.

“Combining KBI’s robust analytical, process development, and reliable high-quality manufacturing capabilities with our Selexis SUREtechnology Platform, puts us in a position to offer current and future partners the ability to take their R&D programs from transfection to investigational new drug (IND) application in less than nine months,” said Igor Fisch, chief executive officer, Selexis. “By delivering the fastest timelines in the industry, our partners will benefit from substantial cost savings and patients will have access to critical drugs sooner. We believe in the ability of our combined technologies and knowhow to contribute to the medicines of tomorrow that will save the lives of those facing diseases as diverse as HIV and various cancers.”