BAC signs license agreement with Hematech

BAC BV, the Bio Affinity Company, announced today that it has entered into a license and supply agreement with Hematech, Inc., a subsidiary of Kirin Pharma that specialises in the production of human antibodies in transgenic cows. The license covers the use of a custom designed bovine IgG scavenging ligand which BAC had previously developed for Hematech. GE Healthcare will immobilize the BAC ligand on chromatographic media, which Hematech will use in the production of polyclonal human IgG from its transgenic cow platform.

BAC’s CaptureSelect^® ligand technology has applications in a wide range of affinity processes, from the purification of monoclonal antibodies and viruses, to plasma proteins. In addition to using the custom designed scavenging ligands in their production process Hematech will also incorporate IgSelect, an off-the-shelf GE Healthcare product that features BAC’s CaptureSelect IgG ligand.

“We have previously worked with Hematech to discover and develop the bovine IgG scavenging ligand and we are very pleased to continue this collaboration into a supply phase,” said Laurens Sierkstra, CEO of BAC. “The success of this project further demonstrates the suitability of our ligands for a wide variety of applications and our ability to work in close partnership with collaborators to deliver ligands that exactly meet requirements.”

“BAC’s technology has proven to be a great fit for our systems,” commented Dr. James Robl, President and CSO of Hematech. “We are very excited about moving this project forward and integrating the ligands into our production processes.”

BAC’s CaptureSelect ligand technology is based on unique Camelid single chain antibody fragments, which can be selected for desirable chromatographic characteristics and produced at high-titre in a proprietary S. cerevisiae strain. The CaptureSelect ligands are suitable and available for use in commercial scale biomanufacturing and for bench research.