Biopharmaceuticals from mosses

The collaboration of two companies will mean the process-scale implementation of an innovative technique for creating complex proteins from moss cells. During the past few years, Sartorius Stedim Biotech and greenovation Biotech, proprietors of the technology, have successfully worked alongside one another to develop fermentation processes in bryotechnology. Now, the two companies are going to join forces in promoting this promising technology. The next step is for Sartorius to deliver the first GMP-compliant photobioreactor for bryotechnological applications.

Unlike other established production methods that utilize mammalian cells, bryotechnology significantly reduces the complexity of the process engineering involved with drug manufacturing. Moss cells are undemanding and can be cultivated using relatively simple culture medium compositions. Furthermore, bryotechnology will result in a significant reduction in investment costs and, ultimately, in more affordable biopharmaceutical medicines.

For Sartorius, this project represents an exciting merge of innovative technologies and the company is confident in its ability to "reliably transfer new technologies to process-scale application".

"This collaboration with the application specialists at Sartorius Stedim Biotech will enable us to further accelerate the pace of transferring the benefits of our unique proprietary bryotechnology to process-scale applications," said Andreas Kranzusch, chief finance officer and managing director of greenovation. "By combining Sartorius's expertise on the one hand together with our edge on this technology on the other hand, we are able to offer our customers significant value."

www.sartorius.com