Clean Mails / April 2023

A new facility to extend biopharma services

Clean Cells was established in 2000 to commercialize novel methods to detect mycoplasma in cell cultures. 23 years later, the company is a leading provider of GMP biopharma services for companies around the world. Last January, Clean Cells opened its new cGMP-compliant facility, a cutting-edge 5 300 mplatform[1] which considerably extends biopharma capacities. Additional biologics testing capacity, extended cell and gene therapy services, end-to-end biomanufacturing and storage: Clean Cells’ new site opens a new chapter in the company’s rich history.

A brief history of Clean Cells and biopharma services

In 2000, three researchers from the French medical research institute (INSERM) are granted the Aventis prize, awarding innovation achievement for mycoplasma detection. This initial grant launches a new company centred around biopharma services : Clean Cells.
In 2018, the ArchiMed group invests in Clean Cells and brings Clean Biologics : a life science group aimed at developing biopharma capabilities and creating synergies between members of the group. Clean Cells is soon joined by contract biomanufacturing firms Naobios (France) and Biodextris (Canada), providing services all along the value chain.

Today, Clean Cells reaches a new milestone as it opens its new headquarters, a 5 300 m2 site dedicated to GMP-ready biopharma services and extending capabilities for biologics testing, including  vaccines, proteins, cell and gene therapy drugs, but also cell and virus banks.

Extending biologics testing capacity

A long-standing expert of quality control testing of biologics, our new facility will allow for a 4-time increase of current testing capacities as part of our GMP biopharma portfolio.

As such, biosafety testing will grow substantially and multiply capacity for microbiology testing, adventitious virus testing and viral safety testing in accordance with worldwide regulatory guidelines.

Product characterization, including impurity, identity testing, potency and cytotoxicity testing will also benefit from the extension with two major innovations in biopharma services:

  • Consolidation of karyotyping and identity testing: intended for veterinary products and Cell & Gene therapy products as CAR-T therapeutics (includes FISH[2] analysis)
  • Next-Generation Sequencing : newest addition to our biopharma services portfolio to support identity and safety of biologics

End-to-end cell and virus banking

Clean Cells new facility will also consist of several cGMP biomanufacturing suites for cell and virus banks, thus extending the existing biopharma services.

Together with our biologics testing and characterization capabilities, this will result in an integrated offer, from research bank to fully characterized GMP cell and virus banks, readily usable for further bioprocesses and biopharma applications.

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Please get in touch with our team to discover the full scope of our extended biopharma services.

[1] Around 57000 sqft
[2] Fluorescence in situ hybridization