SAFC® Strengthens Biopharmaceutical Position With Innovations to Established CHOZN® Portfolio

ST. LOUIS, Sept. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (NASDAQ: SIAL) today announced that SAFC^® Commercial (www.sigma-aldrich.com/safc), its custom manufacturing services business unit, has engineered additional traits into its CHOZN^®  Platform cell line, increasing the utility of the CHOZN^® portfolio of products and services.

Two novel host cell lines have been added to the CHOZN^® portfolio, yielded through SAFC's continuous research and development. The first of these lines is the CHOZN^® GS^-/- host trait stacked with a knockout of the MGAT1 gene function that results in early termination of the N-glycan pathway and enables the expression of recombinant proteins with homogeneous high Man5 glycan profiles. This is useful for protein crystallography studies as well as for the expression of biotherapeutics that target mannose receptors.

The second novel cell line is the CHOZN^® GS^-/- host trait stacked with knockouts of the CMAH and GGTA gene sequences. The knockout of the function of these two genes enables the expression of recombinant proteins that do not contain the antigenic alpha-gal and Neu5Gc moieties on the glycan structures and makes them capable of producing potentially safer therapeutic proteins. These two newly engineered CHO host cells, as well as the parental CHO-K1 cell line, are now commercially available from SAFC^® as custom products.

"The additional traits and unique combination of the CHOZN^® platform and media/feed optimization services provide a best-in-class offer, with continuous advances to the customer," said Kevin Gutshall, Senior Manager for Marketing and Commercial Licensing. "SAFC's CHOZN^® Portfolio, in combination with Sigma-Aldrich's robust intellectual property on the Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) technology, provides CHOZN^® customers with a seamless gateway from development through commercialization."

The CHOZN^® portfolio consists of the CHOZN^® Platform (CHOZN^® GS^-/- CHO cell line and an optimized set of cGMP-produced, chemically defined (CD) media and feeds), additional CHOZN^® ZFN-modified cell lines, ZFN reagents, and customization options including cell line and media development projects. Powered by Sigma-Aldrich's CompoZr^® ZFN technology, SAFC's cGMP-produced and tested CHOZN^® GS^-/- cell line was the first commercially available glutamine synthetase (GS) knockout CHO line on the market. The CHOZN^® GS^-/- platform provides a  GS^-/- cell line that enables streamlined selection, identification and scale-up of high-producing manufacturing clones, saving weeks of development time. In addition, the lean CD media and feed system allows for tunable product quality.   

For more information about the CHOZN^®  Platform, visit www.sigma-aldrich.com/safc-choznplatform.

The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "expect," "provides," "should," "believe" or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding potential future revenues from products derived therefrom. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. There can be no guarantee that the products in SAFC's service offering will continue to meet the demands of the marketplace. Nor can there be any guarantee that any of these products will achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. In particular, management's expectations regarding these products could be affected by, among other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the Company's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing factors could have on the values attributed to the Company's assets and liabilities as recorded in its consolidated balance sheet, and other risks and factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's current Form 10-K on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About SAFC:  SAFC Commercial, the custom manufacturing and services business unit of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, is recognized as a top 10 global specialty chemicals and biologics supplier. As a trusted manufacturer for the life science and high technology industries, SAFC works closely with customers to resolve development challenges and accelerate the product pipeline utilizing its global "Centers of Excellence" and dedicated manufacturing facilities. Its rich portfolio includes high-purity inorganic materials for high technology applications, critical raw materials and extensive biologics safety testing services for biopharmaceutical manufacturing, and complex, high-potent APIs and key intermediates for pharmaceutical manufacturing. For more information, visit www.sigma-aldrich.com/safc.

About Sigma-Aldrich:  Sigma-Aldrich, a leading Life Science and High Technology company focused on enhancing human health and safety, manufactures and distributes more than 200,000 chemicals, biochemicals and other essential products to more than 1.4 million customers globally in research and applied labs as well as in industrial and commercial markets. With three distinct business units – Research, Applied and SAFC Commercial – Sigma-Aldrich is committed to enabling science to improve the quality of life. The Company operates in 38 countries, has more than 9,000 employees worldwide and had sales of $2.6 billion in 2012. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its website at www.sigma-aldrich.com.

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SOURCE Sigma-Aldrich Corporation