Algenex SL, a biotech company delivering disruptive technologies for recombinant biologics production, has announced its entry into the biocomponents market at the Biospain 2021 conference in Pamplona. Algenex intends to provide a high quality, lower cost alternative to traditional methods through its automated and bioreactor-free expression platform, Cris- Bio®, which harnesses the power of insects as natural single-use bioreactors.
Algenex already has an established track record as a producer of proteins for the human and animal diagnostic and therapeutic markets and has also demonstrated the applicability of its technology platform to growth factors, hormones, enzymes and cytokines.
Claudia Jiménez, CEO of Algenex, commented, “This new business path represents an important step forward for Algenex. We have shown that our technology can be applied to a wide range of important biocomponent classes and have also recently received EMA validation for the first vaccine produced using our CrisBio® platform, highlighting its robustness.”
Algenex has already signed commercial agreements for the use of Crisbio® in the production of anti- gens with diagnostic companies, including Biokit and GlobalDX. With the latter, Algenex markets an African swine fever antibody detection test based on antigens produced using CrisBio®. These agreements demonstrate the ability of Algenex to meet commercial requirements for biocomponent supply for international markets.
Building on this platform, the Company intends to expand into the supply of enzymes and growth factors, which are important components in a wide range of biopharmaceutical products including synthetic food, an area of increasing demand and limited market supply. Algenex’ bioreactor-free platform offers ready scalability bringing both cost and product quality benefits to customers. The Company has extensive experience in the production of growth factors, including FGF, EGF and TGF. The overall market for growth factors is expected to reach US$3.7bn by 2031.
Dr. José Escribano, scientific director and founder of Algenex said: “The current biocomponents supply chain leaves many innovators, including those in the synthetic food space, unable to secure high quality products at a volume and price that meets their needs. Our technology can solve this problem and provide a disruptive, yet robust alternative to traditional suppliers.”
Algenex has also proven its technology for the production of a range of enzymes, including DNA polymerase and telomerase. These enzymes, produced using CrisBio®, have equal or superior functionality to commercial offerings, which in addition to the capacity for rapid and scalable production and lower cost of production makes a compelling business case in this area.
