Celonic Acquires Glycotope’s Biomanufacturing Facility

Celonic AG, a global biologics development and manufacturing services provider, and Glycotope, a clinical stage immune-oncology company, announced the successful completion of Celonic’s acquisition of Glycotope’s biomanufacturing facility in Heidelberg, Germany in a Nov. 3, 2017 press release. The acquisition expands Celonic’s GMP manufacturing assets, including continuous perfusion manufacturing.

"With on-boarding of almost two decades of invaluable experience in optimization of perfusion continuous manufacturing processes, Celonic is well positioned to offer our customers the flexibility and the advantages of perfusion and fed-batch manufacturing, from pilot to commercial scale,” said Konstantin Matentzoglu, Celonic's CEO, in the press release.

Henner Kollenberg, Glycotope’s Managing Director, said in the press release: "We look forward to embarking on a new chapter of cooperation with the site in Heidelberg. We are excited about the partnership with Celonic, shaped on CMO services as well as on further marketing of the GlycoExpress (GEX) human cell line platform. For Glycotope the transaction represents a further step in setting its strategic focus on the development of proprietary antibodies in the field of immune-oncology.”

Adding the GEX human cell line platform to Celonic’s CHOvolution integrated development platform will allow customers to select a tailored expression system. The GEX platform allows glyco-optimization and high-yield production of a variety of fully human glycosylated biopharmaceuticals such as antibodies, glycoprotein hormones, coagulation factors, and cytokines. In addition, the GEX platform can be used for in-process glycosylation control.

Franzpeter Bracht, former COO of Glycotope and future COO of Celonic, noted in the press release that the Heidelberg site fits well with the growth strategy of Celonic and that planned investments have the potential to create additional jobs at the site.

Source: Celonic