Collaboration leads to new antibody media

Collaboration between antibody-based affinity purification technology provider BAC BV and human proteins provider Octapharma has led to the development of a new affinity ligand for purifying human cell cultures.

G-CSF CaptureSelect is licensed to Octapharma for use in purifying recombinant human granulocyte-colony stimulating factor, or G-CSF.

Kim Bjornstrup, vice-chairman of Octapharma, explains that the two companies' previous work led to the development.

"The start of this collaboration with BAC, in G-CSF, came from the success with our previous collaboration to develop a ligand for the purification of factor IX," the spokesman says.

With the ligand, Octapharma aims to cut the downstream development time needed in order to produce the recombinant protein, as well as raising the overall recovery of the process compared with conventional techniques.

Octapharma was founded in 1983 and has grown to employ more than 4,000 people, with sales in 2009 surpassing the €1 billion (£820 million) benchmark.