The patented technology enables economical production of chromatography columns in a format that is ready for use in the production of a broad range of biopharmaceuticals including monoclonal antibodies, vaccines and recombinant proteins.
The terms of the acquisition include an upfront payment of $1.8m, a contingent milestone and royalties based on product sales. A product offering based on this technology is being launched at the IBC Biopharmaceutical Development and Production conference under the brand name Opus.
The Opus products will be offered in a range of column diameters and bed heights and can be pre-packed with commercially available chromatography resins including immobilized Protein A. ‘Plug and play’ chromatography columns have the potential to improve the speed of process development and reduce the cost of biopharmaceutical manufacturing by decreasing the time associated with set-up, cleaning and validation of traditional manufacturing technologies.
Walter Herlihy, president and chief executive officer of Repligen, said: “We are pleased to have acquired the BioFlash platform, a technology which will enable us to meet the growing market need for flexible, pre-packed chromatography products. The acquisition and launch of the Opus products reflects Repligen’s ongoing commitment to leveraging our core competency in bioprocessing into a broader purification product offering to the biopharmaceutical industry.”