PlasmidFactory obtained worldwide license from DKFZ for manufacture of pDG helper/packaging vectors

PlasmidFactory (Bielefeld, Germany), a leading contract manufacturer of plasmid DNA, has obtained a worldwide license from the German Cancer Research Center DKFZ (Heidelberg, Germany) for the manufacture and the marketing of the pDG helper/packaging vector series used for adeno-associated virus (AAV) production.

The license agreement extends to multiple vector serotypes such as pDG, pDM, and pDP1rs to pDP6rs as well as the pDG without heparin binding motive and other helper/packaging vectors. PlasmidFactory, who manufactures these vectors in stock for immediate shipment, is furthermore allowed to issue sub-licenses to other distributors to assure efficient and worldwide sales and distribution.

Cotransfection of cells with pDG and AAV vector plasmid is sufficient for production of infectious recombinant AAV, since the pDG vectors contain all AAV and adenovirus functions required for amplification and packaging of AAV vector plasmids. For optimal co-transfection results homogenous supercoiled ccc-plasmid DNA is a prerequisite, which is manufactured up to GMP Grade Quality by PlasmidFactory and characterized using the capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE) technology.

Over the past decade, AAV-based vectors have emerged as promising candidates for gene therapeutic applications. AAV is a naturally occurring virus that is not associated with any disease in humans and that is therefore used to ferry helpful genes into target cells.

Standard protocols necessitate overinfection with helper virus resulting in virus contaminated recombinant AAV stocks. The pDG vectors, which have been developed by Dr. Dirk Grimm in the team of Dr. Jürgen Kleinschmidt (DKFZ), make helper virus overinfection dispensable thus making them a promising tool for gene therapy applications.