Celliance extends bovine albumin range
exclusively from animals originating in Australia, that is aimed at
applications such as pharmaceuticals where there is a need to
ensure the absence of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies
(TSEs).
Probumin Plus albumin is a high-quality albumin product manufactured from Australian cattle, which are classified as being BSE (bovine spongiform enchalopathy) free.
"The market has been indicating an interest in a high quality product that originates from a BSE-free country. Australian-sourced material provides such a profile and as the largest manufacturer of bovine serum albumin worldwide, Celliance is able to offer a high quality material to our customers," said David Bellitt, the company's president.
Last year, the European Medicines Agency, in response to the discovery of BSE in North American cattle, concluded that there was no public health concern from animal-derived medicinal materials such as bovine blood derivatives, including albumin, and gelatin. But it also said there may be some regulatory compliance issues for companies sourcing pharmaceutical ingredients from the region.
In pharmaceutical manufacturing, BSA is used as an excipient for parenteral drugs and in cell culture reactors, although Celliance recently launched a serum-free solution of cholesterol, lipoproteins and fatty acids - called EX-CYTE which can be used, in combination with other cell culture supplements, to reduce or replace animal serum in cell culture processes. It also sells Incelligent, a recombinant human insulin used as a meda supplement.
"Customers will be able to choose by application, by specification and now by material source as Probumin Plus joins the 30 other grades of albumin that we offer," said the company.
Celliance uses proprietary prion and viral clearance processes for all its albumin range, and all Probumin products are screened for adventitious viruses, cytopathic effects and mycoplasma.
In the first quarter of this year, Celliance's sales of the Probumin range were $4.4m, while EX-CYTE brought in $2.8m and Incelligent made $6.8m. Total sales into the bioprocessing sector were $24.5m.
The company also recently introduced Hybri-CYTE, a serum-free cell culture supplement designed for use with hybridoma cell lines. Hybri-CYTE is the first in a new line of supplements that are designed specifically to eliminate the use of fetal bovine serum while incorporating a number of Celliance's proprietary cell culture products including EX-CYTE, Probumin BSA and Incelligent.
