Algenex SL, a biotech company backed by Cleon Capital and Columbus Ventures delivering disruptive technologies for recombinant biologics production, has taken significant steps towards full commercialisation of its CrisBio® platform through the first recommendation for approval by a global regulator of a biological produced with the system. CrisBio® is Algenex’ proprietary and patent protected Baculovirus vector-mediated expression platform that harnesses the power of insects to act as natural single-use bioreactors.

CrisBio® represents a new paradigm in biologics production, offering a quick, linearly scalable solution to meet the global demand for recombinant protein production without significant capex investment. On 17th June, the Committee for Medical Products for Veterinary Use (CVMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended for approval FATROVAX RHD, a recombinant subunit RHDV1 and RHDV2 vaccine for rabbits developed and manufactured using CrisBio®.

Regulatory validation of the first CrisBio product provides further momentum for Algenex as it expands use of the platform into a broader range of applications in both human and animal health. The Company is actively working with its partners to apply technology to a wide range of product classes including vaccines, single domain antibodies, hormones, enzymes, growth factors and diagnostic reagents.

As well as broad applicability, CrisBio® offers benefits that include reduced production costs and increased productivity reaching gram per litre yields, significantly outperforming alternative baculovirus vector approaches. The CrisBio® platform is rapidly scalable, with Algenex’ capacity currently geared for commercial scale production. Algenex anticipates that its facilities will be fully GMP compliant by the end of the year.

Claudia Jiménez, CEO of Algenex said “The positive opinion of the EMA’s CVMP for a CrisBio® developed vaccine represents a significant regulatory validation for our platform and an important next step in bringing this new technology to full commercial light. We have already signed a number of commercial agreements including with Virbac for a major veterinary indication. The CVMP decision further highlights the quality of our technology and underlines the potential of CrisBio® to provide a versatile and robust alternative to bioreactor-based expression technologies across multiple applications in human and animal health, offering our partners significant benefits in terms of development speed, scalability and gross margin.”