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German biopharmaceutical and life sciences company Sartorius Stedim Cellca is developing a cell culture technology centre.

The facility is being built at Science Park III in Germany with an estimated investment of €30m ($35.2m).

Sartorius Stedim Cellca is a subsidiary of Sartorius Stedim Biotech that has established an innovative cell line development technology, the Cellca CHO expression platform.

In September 2017, the company held a ground-breaking ceremony for the facility to mark the start of construction. The facility is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.

Location of Sartorius’ cell culture facility

Located between Stuttgart and Munich, Science Park III is accessible via different transportation routes. Moving to this facility will make it easier and more convenient for international customers to visit the company.

The relocation will also place the cell culture technology centre closer to universities and research institutes in the vicinity of Ulm.

Details and purpose of the cell culture technology centre

The centre is being built on 6,000m² of land that was bought by Sartorius in November 2016.

The company is currently operating from a rented building in Laupheim with 90 employees. Rapid growth in business has necessitated a bigger space for the growing employee base and production facilities.

The facility will include a laboratory and office space and will double Sartorius’ total space.

Details of the Sartorius Cellca CHO expression platform

Sartorius Stedim Cellca devised a unique cell line development technology platform for protein production of biopharmaceuticals in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells.

The platform helps provide stable cell lines with simple feed-batch processes for the biopharmaceutical industry. It consists of an expression vector, a host cell line, a CHO media system and an upstream process design.

The Cellca CHO expression platform helps generate cell cultures from the DNA stage to the reference cell bank (RCB) stage within four months. It has developed a standard feed-batch process that can produce 3g/L protein titres in 12-14 days.

The processes can be transferred and scaled up to 1,000l range bioreactors using the platform. More than 40 of these projects have successfully been completed so far.

Marketing commentary on Sartorius Stedim Cellca

Based in France, Sartorius Stedim Biotech is an international supplier of products and services to the pharmaceutical industry. The company serves as a total solution provider, with its portfolio covering various aspects of biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

In 2016, the firm employed 4,700 people and generated €1.05bn ($1.1bn) in revenue.

In 2015, Cellca was acquired by Sartorius Stedim Biotech Group to become Sartorius Stedim Cellca. The new entity develops cell lines and protein production processes, as well as licensing technologies for protein production and offering media to develop cell culture.

The proteins are produced using living cells under controlled conditions and used as the basis for the development and manufacture of medications.

Sartorius plans to expand its workforce by employing a further 120 or more people in the future.