Upfront Chromatography Licenses Use of EBA Technology to Cangene

Upfront Chromatography A/S, a leading developer of customised industrial-scale protein chromatography processes, has signed a licensing agreement with Cangene Corporation, a world leader in developing, manufacturing, and commercialising specialty hyperimmune plasma and biotechnology products. The agreement provides Cangene with the rights to use Upfront´s Rhobust® 2nd Generation Expanded Bed Adsorption (EBA) for the production of therapeutic human antibody products from human plasma. This is the next step in a collaboration between the two companies to develop a new high-yield process for purifying human antibodies directly from blood plasma.

Upfront´s Rhobust® 2nd Generation EBA technology addresses the main drawbacks haunting the classical Cohn ethanol precipitation process: poor product yields, low productivity, and usage of ethanol that can destroy biological activity of some proteins. EBA leads to a more robust process, and significantly improved yields, which are particularly important to the plasma fractionation industry due to the scarcity of human plasma and a growing demand for IgG.

The Rhobust® 2nd Generation EBA chromatography system accommodates unclarified and unstable raw materials, and operates at high flow rates. It creates no back pressure, which is a typical shortcoming of packed bed chromatography. All of this combined with Upfront’s unique ligand chemistries results in record yields at very high productivity rates.

“We are convinced that EBA will be a breakthrough leading to the widespread use of chromatography as the core technology for the plasma fractionation industry,” – says Allan Lihme, Technical Director at Upfront. – “We look forward to further progress on this exciting project with Cangene.”